Tasha s revenge
by Banjo42
Summary: Things are looking up for Rose and Dimitri after Lissa s coronation. The whole gang is living at the Court and Rose is doing what she loves the most, guarding Lissa. Even little surprise can t bring her mood down. But then Tasha breaks out of the prison. Tasha wants revenge, but will she settle for Rose s life? After all, a family is all that her Dimitri ever wanted…
1. Chapter 1: A little surprise (edited)

Hey there! This is a story that I have cooked up in my head for quite some time now. I always second-guessed if I had time or/and enthusiasm to actually bring it to life. Now I thought I should at least give it a try. You´ll never know right? Give me your thoughts about the story since this is my first FanFic! Enjoy! (All rights about the characters goes to Richelle Mead) EDITED

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Rose´s point of view

Life is sweet! Things are finally starting to look up. Lissa's coronation was a huge event as you can imagine, and Lissa really outdid herself this time. The royals were talking about the party for months afterwards! After the dust had cleared, Lissa made sure that I could stay as her royal guardian and Dimitri as Christian's guardian. Talking about Christian, it took him half a year to finally get on one knee and ask Lissa to marry him. Dear Lord, just when you thought that you survived one of Lissa's parties, the next is already at the door. Though she did promise that she would need at least two years to plan the whole wedding.

Maybe Christian and Dimitri had some kind of deal going on because the next Christmas after Lissa and Christians engagement, Dimitri flew me back to Russia to meet his family. Of course, I already knew all of them, but still, it was nice to see them all again. We had a great time! As it happens, during our trip Dimitri proposed to me with his grandmother's ring. Lissa almost died when I told her over the phone. Now she had two wedding to plan! Great… I did tell her that double-weddings were off the list.

So, I'm living a dream here at Court. The whole gang from St. Vladimir's with me, I'm guarding my best friend, and someday getting married to the man of my dreams. Don´t get me started about Dimitri… I could go ooooon about him the whole day! My life's perfect! Or, at least it was… You see, right now I am sneaking across Court in the middle of the Moroi night, let me tell you, it's not that easy to do in daylight.

For few weeks I had been having this nagging feeling at the back of my head that shit is about to hit the fan, pardon my language. Things have been too quiet and too good to be true. The strange feelings weren´t limited to my head only. With a work-out schedule like mine, it's not that alarming to miss a few periods. One is odd, two is coincidence and three is… Well.. Three is why I'm breaking in to the clinic in the middle of night. As we don't get sick that often, I guess there is no need for pharmacy. Who would need a pharmacy when you can have a bowling ally, right?! And no way I'm walking to the clinic and asking some Moroi chick at the counter for a pregnancy test. No, I made sure that no other guardians were near the clinic as I climbed in through the window, snatched a few tests and hurried back to our room. Just to be sure, I took three tests.

I laid all three of them in front of me on the bed, on a piece of toilet paper. I could almost hear the time slipping away as I bite my nails and wait for the results. One, two, and yep three positives. Well, there you have it. Shit fly. How am I supposed to guard Lissa if I'm pregnant?! How is it even possible I am pregnant?! For my knowledge, the only man I ever have been with is Dimitri! I mean I am pretty sure that no Moroi climbed thought our window in the middle of the night and had his way with me. Somebody would have to be crazy to even try that since not only am I highly trained guardian, but I also sleep next to a big scary Russian! How am I going to tell Dimitri? What will he think?

I guess that will have to wait because before I had time to even think about finding or calling Dimitri, the alarms went off. A Strigoi attack is just what I need just now. I jumped up from our bed, hid the evidence, grabbed my stake and headed to Lissa's side.


	2. Chapter 2: The Diversion

RPOV

I barely got out of our room when guardians were already running all over the place. Some were hurrying towards their charges, some towards the wards.

"What´s going on?" I grabbed the nearest guardian and asked for more information.

"Strigoi at the gate!" A female guardian responds quickly before dashing toward the gates.

"Shit… Hey wait!" I try to follow the guardian but didn´t get too far as I spot Eddie. "Eddie!"

"Rose! Are you ok?" Eddie quickly checks me from head to toe.

"Yeah, I´m fine. What´s going on? Breach at the front gate?" I join Eddie as he starts running towards the Palace and Lissa.

"As far as I know they haven´t been able to cross the wards. But there is a lot of them!" Eddie glances my way as he opens the door for us and nods to the guardians. "It´s your night off?"

"Of course it is. Just my luck!" I can´t help but to laugh nervously. He didn´t see my earlier, did he?

"Well, I guess your time off is cancelled." He tries to lighten the mood. I can´t help but to smile back but that smile leaves my lips as soon as we make it to the Throne Room. The room is filled with guardians trying to evacuate Lissa, who is sitting at her throne and going nowhere.

"They haven´t breached the wards, so there is no hurry. Please care for the families near the walls first." Lissa, always the gentle queen. Her on-duty guardians don´t seem to be so happy about her decisions right now as they try again to beg her to come with them.

"Get your ass up the throne and evacuate!" I laugh as I walk near.

"Rose! What are you doing here! It´s your night off! You should be home!" Lissa exclaims and finally stands up.

"Can´t leave you alone for a single night, can´t I?" I joke as I join my team to escort her out of the throne room and towards the safety.

"You shouldn´t have." Lissa pouts a little and settles herself down on the sofa of the safety room.

"Yea-yea." I just tell her and servile the room out of the habit even thought I am on my baggy home clothes and officially off-duty.

"Do you have any knowledge about Christian…?" Lissa asks after a brief silence.

"He was not with you?" That little uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach is back.

"No, he was practising offensive magic at the gym last time I heard" Lissa sights. Worry is obvious in her pretty face.

"Don´t worry, Lis. Dimitri´s with him." I tell her, trying not to worry myself.

"I know. Dimitri is the best, right? I just don´t like the situation. Why would a large group of Strigoi gather at our gates if they are not going to attack?" Lissa questions.

"Distraction?" Comes to my mind and I glance up towards other guardians. They all seems to get the message and straight they posts even more.

"For what?" Lissa sight and gently rubs her forehead.

"I don´t know… We´ll have to wait and see." I can´t help but to sigh with Lissa.

It doesn´t take long to Christian and Dimitri to join as. They both seem to be unharmed, but Dimitri´s looking rather grim. Christian and Lissa greets each other as Dimitri walk to me. We have agreed not to make public notes of affection during working hours so we just shear a little smile. I´m just about to ask where they were as Hans, the head guardian of the Court walks in.

"Sorry to interrupt your Highness, but we have news." Hans bowls slightly as Lissa and Christian finally agrees to keep their hands to themselves.

"Yes? Is the ward holding up?" Lissa asks, suddenly worried again.

"The Ward is intact and the Strigois has cleared out." Hans informs. You could almost see what effect the news have. Some guardians are stupid enough to let their stakes down but overall everyone seems to relax a bit.

"That is great news!" Lissa exclaims. "And no casualties?"

"No, not here, your Highness." Hans lets his gaze travel to me.

"Not here? Where?" I can´t help but to step in.

"It seems as when we were busy with our attack, there has been other attack. At Tarasov." Hans all but whispers. But that is all it takes to silence the whole room.

"At Tarasov the prison?" Lissa looks confused. "Strigois attacked the prison?"

"Yes, your Highness." Hans confirms. I slowly look over my shoulder to Dimitri to see that even he is little confused about the turn of events. But this news only makes me more tense. What on earth is going on?

"What happened? "Lissa whispers, paling a little as.

"The Strigoi killed every guard that got in their way. We are looking at 12 dead guardians. They were obviously after somebody since they did not kill any of the inmates. We just got footage of the security cameras." Hans hand a ipad over to Lissa and I can´t help but to lean over her to see this.

And Hans is right. The Strigoi don´t attack randomly at any moving thing with a pulse like they normally do. They advance strategically along the corridors killing only those who try to stop them. That is until they stop at the front of a particular cell. You can clearly see from the cameras that the leader of the strigoi exchange few words with the inmate before breaking the wall next to the cell. Clever move seeing that the bars are made of pure silver. And the shock is evident on all of our faces as Natasha Ozera walks out of her cell unharmed and chin up like she just mastered the greatest prison break since disappearance of Victor Dashkov.


	3. Chapter 3: The Power of Information

First off, thank you _rose conde_ for the first review. A few kind words there and there really can make a day! And I also appreciate those criticism that you guys are sending my way. But as said this is my first funfiction and English is my third language. Nobody´s perfect so go easy on me. Haters gonna hate, and haters don´t need to keep reading this if my misspellings are giving you grey hairs. Now without further ado, here´s chapter 3!

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ROV

Lissa would have dropped the ipad if Christian hadn´t snatched it first. The whole room was in a shock but Christian the most. Poor guy…

"No… I don´t….what…" He tries to say as he keeps on looking through the tapes.

Christian did cut all contacts with his aunt after the shooting incident. But this was way worst. This was the same person who had protected Christian against his own parents when they turned strigoi. The same person who dedicated her whole life to offensive magic, to fight against strigoi.

"Christian…" Lissa tries and gently touches Christian´s hand. "I am so sorry…"

"No! There has to be a mistake! Tasha wouldn´t team up with the Strigoi! This is insane!" He exclaims.

"A prison can do funny things to a person…" I just mutter. I do have experience on that department and in somewhat level can understand Tasha´s need to do anything to get out of her cell. Clearly Christian heard me as he passes the ipad to Dimitri and buries his head in his hands.

"What could Tasha possibly have promised to strigois to bring at least 30 of them together? " I wonder watching Christian´s struggle to believe the whole situation.

"I think she promised them her knowledge." Dimitri sighs and finally closes the ipad.

"What do you mean?" Lissa is the first to ask.

"Think about it. One group lingers at our gates, testing our response times to an attack and keeps us from sending help to Tarasov. The other team actually executes a plan of raid. Tasha must have told them all of her information about Tarasov and it´s guards."

Dimitri is right. A diversion, a test and a prison break all in one. There is no way that we would have helped guardians at Tarasov since we were in high alert ourselves. And now Tasha was free and I hade a feeling that this was only the beginning of a series of attacks.

"Strigois didn´t kill that many guardians at Tarasov. They could have massacred the whole prison but they didn´t. Tasha must have promised them something better…" I voice the truth that everybody must be thinking.

"The closest and biggest targets at the region are the court and St. Vladimir´s. I doubt that a group as big as theirs would go after small moroi families." Dimitri states grimly.

"Nevertheless, we must evacuate them as soon as possible." Lissa steps in, all ready for her role.

"With Tasha's help and knowledge, they could already be at our door. After the attack on St. Vladimir´s the wards were reinforced against humans. But against a moroi with her fire magic and compulsion…." Christian whispers against his hands from his spot.

"I´ll go and talk to Hans." Dimitri states.

"I´ll call Alberta. The group of 30 strigoi won´t stay hidden for very long. In a day they would have to kill half of the town just to keep their strength up. I think they will attack us within three nights." I share worried look with Dimitri. Dimitri just nods and hurries out of the room.

Before I go, I make sure that the guardians on duty keeps both of Christian and Lissa in the safe room. The call to St. Vladimir's is short as Alberta quickly understands the situation. The evacuation starts immediately and goes surprisingly smoothly. But the atmosphere here at the court is grim and tense. Families barricades themselves in their homes and only people walking big outdoor spaces are guardians. Even guardians always walk in pairs. That way even if one is killed during the attack, the other one can trigger the alarm. We are all just waiting the axe to fall. It seems that we have more pressing issues than my growing belly.


	4. Chapter 4: The revelation

ROV

And the axe didn´t fell on the first day. Everybody were exhausted of being on the lookout for 24 hours and the atmosphere got only denser as the sun rose. Even I felt grumpy and desperate. Waiting was excruciating. You know something bad was about to happen and you just had to wait for it. Calm before the storm. I guess that was part of Tasha´s plan as well.

I stayed at my post for little while longer before heading home. Dimitri was already there as I opened the door. "Hey…"

"Anything?" He asked joining me at the kitchen.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." I sigh before taking a glass of water.

We head back to the tv. Some kind of movie in on. Western no doubt. I make myself comfortable in Dimitri´s arm but can´t really pay attention to the movie. Dimitri absentmindedly drawn some circles in my arms with his thumb. He too seems absent. But somehow even with our worried minds, this moment seems calm and adequate. Just me and him, trying to relax.

Dimitri gently places a kiss to my shoulder. There nothing really hot or sexy about that kiss. It only shows comfort and understanding, and I can´t help to think about those little tests at the bathrooms bin. If I tell him now, it´ll only make him worry more. And he most definitely will make me stand down from the fight. Then again, I haft to take into consideration that our baby could get killed in battle. And I would never forgive myself for that. But then again, the sense of duty is so strong.

It takes me almost the whole movie to decide. And just maybe, maybe, sometimes I should put myself before others. And by myself, I mean the baby. My life isn´t worth more than any other´s. But as a mother… It just feels wrong to not put my child first. I will not be like my mother and put others before my kid. No. That´s why I have to tell Dimitri. "Comrade…?"

"Yes?" He leans forward to look into my eyes.

My tonguage feels like lead and my heart starts to race. I think Dimitri noticed that because he starts to get up from the couch. "No." I tell him snugly and make him lie down again. "I need to tell you something…"

"What is it?" He asks quietly, almost like he can sense that whatever I am about to say will change thing for good. With shaking hands, I take hold of his hand and place it on my stomach. For a while, he just stares at our hands. Then he slowly lifts his gaze and meets mine. "You are…"

"…pregnant." I finish his tentative sentence. I try so hard to read his face, but the mask that he wears so good is back on. We both stay silent for a while more until he finally asks. "Is it Adrian´s?"

"What?! Of course not! Adrian is with Sydney!" That´s his first reaction!

"Then who´s? Christian is out of the question since you wouldn´t do that to Lissa. Jesse?!" He starts to get impatient.

"God no! It´s not Christian´s and most definitely is not Jesse´s! I don´t sleep with my friend or enemies! It´s yours!" How can he even for a second think that I would cheat on him! He seems to realise his mistake. I push his hands away and rise from the couch.

"Roza! I am –" He starts but I interrupt him before he can insult me any further.

"You really think that I would do something like that, hu?!" I ask almost yell.

"I didn´t know what to think… Roza, you know that I would do anything to have a family with you. But that is impossible…" He tries to get the hold of my hands. I let him but still keep my angry gaze at the wall next to me. "Look at me please…"

And I do as asked. I turn my angry gaze at him and open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind. But what I see stops me. His eyes, those rich brown eyes are full sorrow and fatigue. "I love you with everything I have… "

"But…?" I can sense it coming.

"This… This is really hard to take in, Roza. I… I just…" He tries to say and rubs his forehead.

"You think I´m lying." It´s not a question. I knew it. I try to hold back the tears and stand my ground.

"I need time.." He whispers but doesn´t let go of my hand.

"Fine.." That´s really all I can say. It´s not like I can make him understand and accept this instantly. If time is what he needs, I guess that´s what I need to give him. So slowly I let go of his hands and I can see the hurt and the pain in his eyes. I wonder what my face looks like. At least my heart feels like breaking into tiny little pieces. I know that this is not the end and we will sort things out. We have been thought harder things than a little time-out. But it still hurts nevertheless.

Silently I turn around and head towards the bedroom. Slowly I sit down on the bed and stare at my feet. Breathing in and out. Just breathing. My mind seems numb. This is not how I imagines this conversation going. I didn´t think Dimitri would kiss me and proclaim his undying love for me but this. This feels like a rejection. Is he rejection the baby or just me? I don´t know. I don´t know what to think. I´m just tired. So I let myself fall backwards on the bed and drift to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5: A single white rose

ROV

When I woke up the sun had already set. And I felt like crap. My back is killing me, and I don´t think sleeping on the covers instead of under them really helped that. Dimitri was long gone when I sneaked out of the bedroom. I made some breakfast for myself before heading to see Hans. When I got there, the whole guardian base was already up and running. It starts to suspiciously look like Dimitri let my sleep long on purpose. And I really needed it.

Guardians are hurrying from one place to the other, talking into their ear-buds, handing out documents and keeping themselves busy. I sidestep some guardian bringing everybody coffees and knock on Hans' door. I wait for a second before opening the door and waltzing in. Hans is on the phone, so I just sit down and make myself comfortable. I guess I should feel stressed about telling Hans about my little miracle, but after Dimitri… Well, the worst has already happened. Now I just feel tired.

When Hans finally ends the call, I make myself sit up straight and draw a long breath. "Good morning…"

"So you finally decided to join us." Hans tries to make a joke. Which tells me how tired he actually must be. "Dimitri already called you sick."

"I´m alright. I´m just… Well.. I´m pregnant." No need to beat around the bush.

"You´re what now?" He seems shocked.

"I´m pregnant." I repeat and somehow repeating it out loud makes me embarrassed. "The timing is not ideal, I know that. But I´m not doing an abortion so I think I need to step down from my post for a while …"

Hans stay silent for a while. I can see millions of thoughts running through his head and I am thankful for him that he doesn't start asking any more questions. "I understand. Take all the time you need, and your job will be waiting for you."

How I could just kiss him! Hans seems to realize this and quickly dismisses me. With smile on my face I make it to the door before someone else comes rushing in. "St. Vlad´s is under attack!"

We both dash out of the room and to the surveillance center. A group of guardians has already gathered in front of the screens. I make way for us to actually see what´s happening as I can remotely hear Hans barking orders. What I see makes my blood run cold. Strigois. Everywhere. And they are killing children like flies. My hands start to shake, and I can feel the cold sweat forming. There is nothing I can do except watch as those small children are killed in front of me. How my home is violated by those creatures. I can feel my heart pumping adrenaline through my veins for a battle but that´s in vain. Not a single one of us can help them now. Our room is dead silent as the screams of children echo around us.

In some point I can feel Lissa joining me. She hugs me and holds onto me for her dear life. But I cannot turn my gaze away from the screen. This is my fault. This is my doing. This is Tasha´s revenge on me. That is my home. Without permission tears run down my cheeks. And I still feel so cold that I actually shake. Lissa whispers some words to my but I can´t make sense of them.

And finally, Tasha makes her appearance. She walks through the bodies without even looking at them. I follow her across the screens and stop as she stops by the statue of Saint Vladimir. She pulls out a single white rose and glances around her looking for something. Lissa almost faints when Tasha walks over to a little girl. The girl can´t be more than ten years old. And very dead. Tasha kneels down and smuts the white rose with the blood of the girl. She then stands up again, walks over to the statue and hands the rose to Saint Vladimir.

She bowls her head to the statue as if paying her respect. That woman makes me sick. Then she slowly turns towards the cameras like she knew they were there all along and we would be watching. She smiles politely, creates a fireball and knocks the head of the Saint Vladimir´s statue.

"The bitch!" I have just time to yell before she throws another fireball at the camera. One by one the screens turn black.

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Too mean? Let my know what you think!


	6. Chapter 6: The last straw

ROV

Against better judgement, and Hans´ condemning looks, I too boarded the plane heading to St. Vladimir´s. I know what you think! And no, I didn't go with the first plane boarding the task forces. I have that much sense. Dimitri did go with the first plane thought. He had stopped by our room and just stood by the doorway. I didn't look up and he didn't say a word. But I guess his presence still counts for something.

The second plane was almost empty seeing that we couldn't send all of our guardians to St. Vladimir´s. But still some guardians had come from nearby towns and offered their help. The plane rid didn't take that long and with no time we were already landing. No big entourage to welcome us. In fact, the field was pretty deserted. That didn't faze me, seeing that I knew the way. Some guardians along the way gave me a short nod but since I didn't have my guardian uniform on most of them just walked past me. No running or hurrying. It was already too late for that.

I didn't exactly have a plan what to do when I got here. I just knew that I should be here to receive Tasha's message. And oh boy, I got it. Body after body. Small bodies, tall bodies, bodies ripped apart… I don´t think I need to go on with that, you get the picture. Most of the bodies were already covered with white sheets. In some you could see the blood soaking the white fabric. Some looked just like mommies from the horror movies. And some just looked like small lumps.

I followed Tasha´s path of revenge toward the statue of Saint Vladimir. It was really easy to see where she wanted me to go. It did come to my mind while I was walking that this would be a perfect trap. She knew I would come. And despite knowing that she knew, I would still have to come.

There were quite a few guardians circling the statue. As I drew near, some of them gave me a way and some tried to stop me. But I pushed past all of them, anticipating the worst. And Tasha, once again, didn´t disappoint me. She had added something to her installation. There, leaning against the statue´s base sat Alberta. Her throat ripped apart and bits and pieces of her flesh and skin scattered around the ground. Alberta's eyes were cast upward as if she was looking at the white rose. You could almost see the defiance still in here eyes. She had gone down with a fight.

I didn´t even realise I was crying until I heard Dimitri´s voice behind me. Most of the guardians had already left giving me a moment. Dimitri pulled me into a hug and whispered words of comfort into my ear. I just held his hands that much tighter around me. Dimitri´s hand slowly and carefully finded it´s way to my stomach and I couldn´t help but to smile a little. And then and there, I decided that if a war is what Tasha wants, a war she shall get. Now she just stepped over the line. I will hunt that bitch down and end her with a stake throw her heart. I don´t care if she is a Moroi or not by then. She will go down like a monster she is. I don´t care if it takes me months to find her, but I will find her. And I will make her suffer. For me, for all those children, for Dimitri, for Christian and for the safety of this baby. It is so on!


	7. Chapter 7: An Ozera

RPOV

And it took months, as I said, to find Tasha. At first Dimitri was strongly against my plans, but when I told him that I would seek Tasha with or without his help, he seemed to change his mind. After the moment by Saint Vladimirs statue, he seemed to accept the pregnancy. Probably little too well, because he wouldn´t leave me alone for a second. Talk about helicopter parenting! As if I would just at the moment notice take off and start my hunt alone. I mean, I would if they tried to stop me, but I also know that I need all the help I could get. And the pregnancy is slowing me down. No matter how hard I try to keep up with my work-out and keep my stamina up, I still seem to slow down and grow weaker.

Lissa is doing everything she can to get my mind off Tasha. She tries to organize our wedding, plan the baby shower and fuss about pregnancy stuff. Sometimes I actually pay attention, and sometimes I just fantasize about murdering Tasha while looking at dresses. Hey, dress-shopping gets boring after a hundred times! Don´t hate the player, hate the game. Hmm, baseball bat would do some pretty severe damage…

Anyway… I enlisted everyone I know to help me tracking Tasha down. After the attack on St. Vladimir´s the strigois seemed to scatter around the woods and go on their separated ways. Probably for the best considering how much blood a group of that size would require. We, and saying we I mead Abe or Sydney, were able to track down most of the remaining groups of strigoi down but after pretty intense interrogations came up with empty hands. Not a single one of those vile creatures could tell us where Tasha was heading. Okay, maybe hormones are trying to overpower my better sense, but after what happened I could not find any love in me for strigois.

And once again, I´m here, standing by the door and listening how my dear old man is torturing the shit out of a strigoi.

" I can stop…" Abe baits.

"I DO NOT KNOW!" The poor bastard screams.

" Oh, but I know you are lying." Abe laughs and cleans his hands. The man can really do his job. I mean, some of the things Abe does with those silver instruments are way to innovative even for me. But I guess you really do everything in your power to make your pregnant daughter happy.

"I would rather die right now!" The strigoi hisses. And that sparks my interest. He knows something. And by the gleam in Abe's´ eyes, he hears it too. If the strigoi wasn´t screaming by then, he is now. But still it takes hours till he cracks. Or his skull cracks, but apparently strigoi can still talk with a severe headwound. Who would have guessed huh?

I hurried out of the prison cells and almost run into Lissa. "Lissa! We need to hurry!"

"We do?" She asks and joins me in my frustratingly slow jog while her guardians follow us.

"Tasha is heading to Baia!" I tell her little out of breath as I reach our apartment. "I need to pack and leave immediately!"

"Rose! You are really pregnant! You cannot go to Russia and fight Tasha like that!" She is choked.

"I have to! This is our only lead and by now she is already there! Don´t you see! Tasha has already demonstrated that she is willing to hurt everyone I know to get back at me. And Dimitris´ family is in Baia!" I try to tell her as I start to pack.

"I´m calling Dimitri." She sights and makes a call while I fetch my toiletries.

I dance around her collecting my stuff as the door bangs open and a very angry Dimitri rushes in Christian right on his heels. "You are not going!"

"I have to! She needs to be stopped!" I yell back.

"I agree…" Christian pipes in.

"What now?" We all say.

"She needs to be stopped. And I am coming with you." Christian declares. "She is or was my aunt and I am taking responsibility for her actions too. I am an Ozera and I am taking back the control. I too need to show people that I do not accept this."

"But…" Lissa tries very worried.

"I´ll go and Dimitri comes with me as my guardian." Christian smiles at me.

"Well then…" Is all that I can say.

"Then…Then I am coming too!" Lissa says, though I can see fear in her eyes. "I can heal you guys if something goes wrong…"

"We appreciate your offer, but you are the Queen. You need to stay here where it is safe." Dimitri steps in. Lissa looks somewhat relieve, but holds Christian´s arm little tighter.

"What about Adrian?" Christian proposes. "Sydney could help us too."

"I´ll call them while you pack. I think Abe is coming too." I nod.

"And we need to warn the Belikovs" Lissa reminds and starts doing just that. Everyone else hurries to pack while I sit down for a while and start going over the plan in my head. Now we have the troops. We just need to get to Russia and hunt Tasha down. It won´t be easy but we can do it. And hopefully get it done before the due date.


	8. Chapter 8: Divide and conquer

RPOV

Lissa had called ahead for us. Apparently The Belikovas had not seen or heard anything about Tasha, which was a good thing. I guess… That meant that either Tasha was still out there and on the road, or that she was already there and lying in wait for us. She couldn´t exactly fly to Russia since every guardian around the world was looking for her. Either way, we hurried to Baia. And as soon as we stepped over the threshold we were attacked my four very worried women.

"Did you see her?!"

"Are you all alright?!"

"What kind of trouble you got yourselves into this time?!"

"Did you bring anything from the Sates?"

"Victoria!" Olena scolded Vika for asking such a question at the time like this.

"Sorry Vika, no souvenirs this time. And we are fine, just tired. We haven´t seen anything out of the ordinary." I reassure everyone. I guess I already lost most of my fire during the flight. Now I just felt tired and my feet were killing me. "Mind if I sit down?"

"No, of course not Rose. Where are our manners!? Making a pregnant lady stand by the door!" Olena ushers all of us into the living room.

"By the way, what is Victoria doing here?" I wonder as I settle myself down on the sofa. Mia, Eddie, Christian, Dimitri, Abe, Pavel and the Belikovas soon join me.

"Well, when you get a frantic call from the Queen herself, it´s hard not to do as told! She just told me to go home immediately. She even called Zeklos to give me a paid leave!" Vika laughs as she sits down next to me.

"Sounds like Lissa." I just smile.

"So what are we going to do about Tasha…?" Christian asks after a short pause.

"First of, as grateful as I am to Queen Dragomir, I think gathering us all in the same place is not wise." Abe states and strokes his goatee. "One fireball at the middle of the night would set the whole house on fire and kill most of us."

"Divide and conquer?" Dimitri proposes.

"Exactly. I am getting a room from the town center. Olena and Yeva are more than welcome to stay with me and Pavel." Abe nods.

"Much appreciated but I am not going anywhere. This is my house." Olena declares. "Please take Karolina and her children with you."

"Alright. Sonya should go stay with Oksana and Mark and Victoria should head back to her charge."

"Eddie and I can go to a hotel too." Mia offers.

"That leaves Rose, Dimitri, Olena, Yeva and Christian here." Abe seems somewhat satisfied.

"Still doesn´t solve what we are going to do to find Tasha." Christian remarks.

"Should we start interrogating the strigois again?" Eddie asks and earns a very curious look from the Belikovas.

"No, that would alarm Tasha and she could go underground." I sigh. "We need to find her and end this fast."

"Could we track strigois unseen?" Eddie ponders.

"We could go around clubs and allies and put tracking devices on them!" Mia gets excited.

"Not such a bad idea. Sydney could probably get us some equipment by tomorrow." I start to like this idea.

"Make that 12 hours." Abe promises with a sly look.

"Since Sydney and Adrian couldn´t actually get here, they could help us remotely." Dimitri nods.

"I´ll call them. But who should go around the town marking the strigois?" I wonder.

"Not you. We will go." Mia states and points at my stomach. "Eddie is a guardian and I´m getting pretty good at offensive magic. We will be safe!"

"We can do that too with Dimitri." Christian offers.

"I think every single one of the strigois will be on the lookout for you, Dimitri or Rose. It is for the best if the three of you stay indoors and out of sight. Pavel can take Victoria out. Or Sonya or Karolina. They are a common sight at the town. " Abe reminds us. I don´t necessarily like the idea that I have to sit on the sidelines for this, but if it helps catch Tasha, I will keep my mouth shut.

"What should we do on the meanwhile?" I ask and try not to sound bitter.

"Well, Kiz, you should just enjoy your pregnancy." Abe says with a very satisfied and sly smile on his face. Yeah, that´s Zmey alright.

"Do you already know which one you are having?" Olena lights up like a Christmas tree. I guess she was already done with our planning and happy to change subject.

"No, we are keeping it us a surprise." I smile and Dimitri just grouches. He would have like to know.

"Well, either way, we have a lots of baby clothes for both gender!" Olena rejoices. And it doesn´t take long before all of the Belikovas are giving us both tips about taking care of a new born. Somehow that makes my heart melt and the whole pregnancy seems so much more real. We are going to have a baby! And we have such a loving family to help us. I can´t help to share a smile with Dimitri. I can see it in his eyes too, that he feels very proud and loved at the moment.

"So is the baby going to be a Belikov?" Sonya has to ruin the moment.

"Um… We are probably going to get married after the baby is born…" I remember. There have been so much going on lately that I haven´t even thought about the wedding.

"What?" Dimitri seems unhappy. "Our baby would be a Hathaway?"

"And what is wrong with that?!"

"Our baby is going to be a Belikov." Dimitri states and doesn´t leave any room for arguments. I don´t know what to say, I just stare at Dimitri.

"Elope." Yeva suddenly states as she walks by the living room toward kitchen with her teacup. She must have been eavesdropping this whole time.

"Well… We do have a church here." Olena starts to wonder. I shear a look with Dimitri. I´m little uncertain about this plan but I can see the burn in Dimitri´s eyes. He has already made a decision.

"Ou, what the hell! Let´s do it!"


	9. Chapter 9: A kiss to seal the deal

RPOV

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?" Lissa wails and those big and ugly crocodile tears run down her beautiful face.

"Oh, Lissa, come on! This is not the end of the world." I can´t help but to laugh. Lissa don´t seem so amused. "I know we had plans. But this would be perfect! Dimitri wants the baby to be a Belikov and I don´t want Tasha to be able to crush our wedding."

"I suppose so…" She finally consents and dries her tears.

"We are almost at the mall. We will send you a lot of pictures of the dresses and you can still help me choose." I promise while I do a quick check of the parking lot out of habit.

"You better!" Lissa sighs. "I can´t believe you are getting married and I´m not there!"

"You will be. We will stream the whole thing for you and my mom. Mia can carry the phone, so it would seem like you are at the altar with me as my maid of honor."

"I would like that." Lissa even smiles.

"So you better start your makeup and hair. And I know you have already bought and hidden some ugly-ass bridesmaid dress! You better find that and send a picture to Mia so she can coordinate the colours with you!" I just laugh at Lissa´s squinted eyes.

"Very funny, Rose."

"I know!" I just laugh and head toward the mall with Mia and Eddie. "But seriously, you have about three hours to get ready."

"Three hours?! Are you insane?! That´s inhumane!" She shrieks and hurries out of picture.

"Keep the laptop open for pictures." I just sing and end our video chat. We all have a lot to do in three hours. And we did wound a dress and shoes for us all, had our hair and makeup done and still made it to the church in time.

"Is he already there?" I ask Abe as he greets me in the front room. Eddie joins other by the altar and Mia takes care of the technology.

"Everything is ready." Abe confirms. I can see that there´s more things he would like to say.

"It feels strange to stand here…" I start.

"It indeed does… To think you are so grown that you are about to get married…" Abe seems even little mad about it.

"But alive and well." I just remind him with a gentle smile.

"True." He joins me.

"And it feeeeels so weird to wear white! I mean, that ship has obviously sailed a while ago!" I laugh and rub my belly. We did have a little trouble finding a webbing dress that we could buy off the rack and that would actually fit me. But we did find this short and sexy white lace dress. Though it´s little shorter at the front because of the baby. Abe tenses and before he can march to the altar and give Dimitri a piece of his mind, I just grab Abe by the arm and positions us to be ready for the music. "Breath, Old man."

fAnd as the doors opened, I couldn´t take my eyes off of Dimitri. I think I would have just stood there stupidly if Abe wasn't there by my side. I just loved how Dimitri had kept the legendary duster as a part of his outfit. That made me smile from ear to ear and Dimitri soon joined me. He was clearly checking me from head to toe and liking what he saw. And all too soon I was already standing in front of him. I remembered to wave Lissa and mom but other than that I was mesmerised by Dimitri. Even so that I almost missed our vows. Dimitri promised me and our baby the moon and stars. His vows were beautiful, and I would so frame that paper when we get home. My vows were short and simple. I promised him myself. And I think he was content with that. We exchanged our silver rings and sealed the deal with a very passionate kiss. Didn´t help with Abe´s tension.

We had arranged it so that we would have a reception lunch tomorrow, but this night Dimitri and I would have the whole house to ourselves. And a boy did we need it. The dress didn´t last very long, but it´s not like I am going to wear it again. We had pictures from the church to remember it. But I was little sad about my now messed hair. The hairdo had been nice. But I can´t complain now that we are laying on the bed and my new husband is running his fingers thought my locks. Maybe everthing will turn out just fine. Wishfull thinking I know, but for a while life seemed perfect again.


	10. Chapter 10: A sore thumb

RPOV

Oh, the lazy days. Everyone else were running around the town putting tracking devises onto the last strigois. Dimitri was sitting behind me on the couch and playing with my hair. I guess he was practising his braiding skills just in case we had a baby girl. But I think the baby will me a boy. A mini-Dimitri that would love cowboys just like his dad. And we would have to buy bed sheets and towels with cowboy prints. The idea made me smile.

"What?" Dimitri asks turning his eyes away from the screen. We had been watching a live broadcast of trackers. It was becoming quite clear where the nest was located but right now we were more interested in some random strigois going to storage area at the outskirts of the town.

"Just thinking that the baby is probably a boy." I smile still watching red dots on the screen.

"I think it´s a girl." Dimitri argues.

"You want another Hathaway running around?" I just laugh.

"Belikova." He corrects. "But yes."

"Belikova." I smile glancing at my ring. "Do you have any names in mind?"

"Some. I heard Queen Vasilisa was demanding that the baby should be named after her." Dimitri finishes my braid.

"With all love, no." I shake my head. "Though Vasili isn´t such a bad name. It would be Russian and it reminds me of Game of Thrones!"

"We are not naming our baby after Game of Thrones." Dimitri seems horrified about the idea.

"Okay-okay!" I laugh and join Dimitri on the couch. "But still a Russian name?"

"Something that would translate easily to English too." Dimitri adds.

"Sounds good." I lean against Dimitri and start thinking about the names. Dimitri gently lays his hand on my stomach and returns his gaze back to the screen. And there it shows up again! Some random strigoi going solo and heading towards the warehouses. I tap Dimitris hand to get his attention. He sees it too. This is the fourth time we detect the same pattern. Something is definitely going on. Maybe, just maybe we found Tasha!

Dimitri is up even before I can ask him to. He takes the phone and calls Abe. I take the laptop and call Sydney. She answers pretty quickly. "Hey, Syd!"

"Morning, Rose." She seems little cranky. Probably because of the lag.

"Sorry for the early start but we think we found something. Can you log on to the program too?"

"Sure, give me a minute." She yawns and moves to her study. "What do you got?"

"This one particular strigoi keeps going back to the warehouses. We already know that he doesn´t stay there for daylight. He just makes regular trips. We need to know why." I describe as Sydney logs in.

"So it would seem… Can you see the overlapping statics?" The maps light up showing all the data at once.

"Yeah, I see it. Can you find some cameras nearby?" I make room for Dimitri who is still on the phone.

"Sure. It will take a moment thought." Sydney warns me.

"It´s okay, I´ll hold." I promise and try to listen to Dimitris conversation. He is most likely talking with Abe. They are about to call the night and head home. Dimitri and Pavel plan on checking the area themselves.

It doesn´t take that long for Sydney to get back on the phone. "Got it."

"What do you see?" I ask and get Dimitri to listen too.

"Right now, the strigoi is carrying some unconscious human towards the warehouse. The human seems to be unharmed. Just knocked out. Food for someone?" Sydney speculates.

"Most likely. It can´t be for another strigoi because it´s night-time right now and bring lunch home for honey seems just too kind for strigois." I guess.

"Can you see how many strigois there seems to be?" Dimitri asks.

"I see just one." Sydney says after a short pause.

"Let´s go." I nod and start to get up.

"You are not going anywhere." Dimitri pulls me back down on the couch.

"Oh, come on! There is only one strigoi and Tasha. We can surprise them!"

"No!" Dimitri exclaims. "Pavel and I will handle this."

"Try to stop me." I declare and get up. Dimitri looks like he just might stop me. But before he can grab me, I am already by the door and putting my coat on. "Come on!"

"You stay at the car." Dimitri says very unhappy but still follows me out of the door.


	11. Chapter 11: Stay in the car

RPOV

"Okay already! I swear by my life and my love that I will not get up from this car! Now, happy?" I burst out and cross my arms with a pout.

"Very." Dimitri just smiles and leans down to give me a kiss. We were parked at the sand court next to the warehouses still waiting for Abe and the others to arrive. "I will have enough backup with me so you can just stay here with Mia."

"Mia?! Oh, come on!" That doesn't lift my spirit.

"Mia is a good fighter, but I think it would be for the best if you two stayed here. You can keep an eye on Mia and Mia can protect you all if something should go wrong." Dimitri tries to explain.

"For the love of God, I am a guardian! I will not be protected by a Moroi!" I think Dimitri has lost his mind….

"Yes, but you are a six months pregnant guardian." Dimitri takes my hand and tries to calm me down. "We both know what a strigoi would go after first if he sees you. Mia can keep the strigoi at bay while waiting for help. There is no need for encounter if we can avoid it. I just hope that it doesn´t come to the point where Mia would haft to protect you all."

"I have a gun." I try again. True, I did have a gun with silver bullets in it, but I have never used it. Bad experiences, if you know what I mean.

"Good, keep that within arm´s reach. And please don´t sit behind the wheel. If you need a quick getaway, I would like Mia to drive." Dimitri request.

"Of course you do." I just say and turn my angry gaze away. Seems like my new hubby is treating me like a baby already.

"Just trying to keep you both safe. You and the baby…" Dimitri whispers as Abe and other pull next to us.

"I know…" I answer with a sigh. "I love you. But please don´t treat me like a kid."

"I love you too. And I am sorry. But for just this once, don´t do anything hasty."

"I will stay in the car." I repeat my promise and give him one more kiss for good luck. Dimitri then joins the others and goes over the plan with them. Mia soon joins me in the car and she too doesn´t look so happy.

"So… Getaway car, huh?" She tries.

"I guess so.." I just sigh and watch as others start to advance the building. "Can´t just believe that we have to sit this one out."

"I think they will just capture Tasha and you´ll have all the time in the world to stare her in the eyes." Mia tries to comfort me.

"I think Tasha won't go down without a fight. I wouldn´t. And I think that in the end they have no other choice but to…to.." I keep watching the entrance.

"To end her?" Mia tries to be polite.

"I was thinking more about the words like destroy, blast, eliminate or terminate." I just laugh.

"That will be one hell of a baby." Mia just mumbles under her breath. Maybe I am becoming a bit cruel, but Tasha deserves it. We keep silent and just watch the building. Nothing seems out of the ordinary and from where we sit, we cannot detect any sign of movement inside. The wait is always awful. I keep glancing at the dashboard clock and minutes just stay put. I start to become impatient.

"What´s taking so long?!"

"They would have called us if they needed help." Mia just reminds me and keeps checking her nails. More waiting. And more. And more. Then finally! The door opens and the human we saw earlier stumbles out of the door. Even we can see multiple bitemarks along her neck. Ouch.

"Kind of many marks, don´t you think?" Mia asks hand already on the door handle.

"There got to be more strigois than just the one." I nod and open the door. I didn´t even get out of the car as the top window of the building explodes with fire. Big shrapnel and shards come flying all over the yard and one or two hit the human. One particularly big shard of glass pierces her back and she just falls on the ground covered with blood. She stays there.

"Well…" Mia start staring at the body.

"Should we help?" I start to second-guess.

"She seems dead already." Mia point out.

"But the building is now on fire and others are still in there. You are a water user, right?"

"I am… But maybe they are coming out in a second." Mia waits a bit. After a minute or two nobody has excited the building and the flames are only growing. "Okay, let´s go."

We both got out of the car and carefully advance the building. No sighs off anybody, just the flames. We reach the human and move her little closer to the car. Still nothing. I exchange a quick glance with Mia. Something is definitely wrong here. We stay clear from the doors as Mia starts to extinguish the fire. Just as she gets the fire under her control a new fireball flies over our heads and hits the car. It goes up in flames with seconds.

"TASHA! You coward! Get down and fight like a man!" I just yell at her.

"Shh, Rose!" Mia whispers franticly. "You cannot fight like that and I don´t think I will match up to Tasha´s flames!"

"The car is gone. The best change we have is to look for others and draw Tasha with us to them." I whisper and yank the doors of the building open. You can clearly see signs of a fight inside. Some burn marks on the walls, blood splatters and two dead strigois near the stairs.

"Up or down?" I whisper to Mia.

"Down. Tasha is upstairs."

"Good. Let´s go find others."


	12. Chapter 12: A light

RPOV

We descended the grid stairs downstairs and were met with darkness. We could remotely hear voices of talking and fighting but see nothing. The darkness was too thick, and the corridores branched off to at least three different directions. We didn´t have much time to decide the direction since we could hear footsteps behind us. I let Mia choose the corridor and followed her to the left.

I kept glancing over my shoulder for Tasha and Mia led the way. It was becoming more and more dark by the minute, even so that Mia was having troubles navigating in the corridor. Eventually Mia had to take her phone out and use it as a flashlight. That made me worried. We were too easy to spot with a light so Mia did try to hide the light between her fingers.

I kept my other hand on Mia´s shoulder and the other ready with the gun. I kept my ears open for any movement behind us. I could feel cold sweat running down my neck. I winced few times as I distinctly heard some kind of scuffling or a bump behind us. We both had halted and stayed put listening to the darkness. But the sounds had not continued so we kept going.

I almost had a heart attack when Mia shrieked and docked down. I already had my gun ready when Mia started laughing. She had just walked into a pipe and hit her head. I helped her up and silenced her with a look. We both waited and listened some more before continued on. Right, left, right, right, left. I exchanged a look with Mia. We both knew we were lost.

We were making a right turn again when Mia stopped and docked back to the corridor we came from. She glances quickly towards my gun and nod to me. I move in front of her and take a peak. There seems to be a light at the end of the new corridor. The light doesn´t seem artificial so no phones or a flashlight. It looks almost like the light would be moving. Fire. A lantern or a torch? Or a fire user.

I silently demand Mia to head back but she shakes her head and has already summoned water to her. She kills the phone and we both duck down and follow the light that seems to drift along the corridor. Someone is moving and haven´t noticed us yet. We are slowly drawing closer. And closer. And closer.

The light slowly turns an upcoming corner and I give a sign to Mia. This is it. We attack. "Hand up!" I yell gun ready and make the turn. Mia follows me closely and throws a water ball at the target. There is a yelp and the light goes out. It´s dark again and nobody can see a thing. "DO NOT MOVE!" I order and listen to the footsteps of the target. The person tries to run but stops all of a sudden.

"Rose?"

"Christian?"

"Mia." Mia completes the introductions.

"Oh thank God." Christian sighs and Mia turn on her phones flashlight once again.

"What are you doing here?" I demand. "And where are others?"

"We were ambushed and had to separate. I been looking for them." Christian tells and dries his hand at his shirt.

"Sorry." Mia mutters.

"It´s alright. What are you two doing down here? You were supposed to wait in the car."

"Tasha torched the car. We had to make a run for it." I tell and keep watching the darkness. "Do you still have your earpiece intact?"

"I think so." Christian tries the earpiece. "This place is like a labyrinth. We already tried to agree on a meeting place. But I haven´t find it yet."

"We´ll just keep going. Just tell others that Tasha is down here too and we are okay." I ask. I don´t want Dmitri to see the car and assume the worst.

"I think I caught a glimpse of her at the beginning too…" Christian sighs and focuses on the call while we keep moving along the corridor. Somehow it makes me relax a bit now that Christian is with us. Tasha wouldn´t be so crazy that she would kill her own nephew at the sight, would she?

"Dimitri didn´t sound too happy…" Christian conveys Dimitri´s message with a grim.

"Well we couldn´t stay in the car, now could we." I just mumble. I will deal with Dimitri´s wrath later.

The corridor opens to a larger room that resembles an old canning factory. We stay by the opening observing the rooms for a moment before entering. We go around big machines and conveyor belts as we try to get to the other side of the room. Christian gives others an update of our whereabouts. Our first mistake. The talking apparently aroused interest of a strigoi hiding behind machines and he is at our throats in no time. Literally. His first instinct was to go after Mia seeing that she is a Moroi and a girl. But Mia can hold her own. The strigoi takes one look at Christian´s flaming hand and goes after me. Second mistake. We had surrounded the strigoi from all three directions so when he launches at me, Mia and Christian are too far away to help me. The strigoi knocks me back but somehow I am able to roll over a conveyor belt. Third mistake. Now I am even more separated from others and Christian is trying to help by throwing few fireballs at the strigoi. Some of them fly past me but one of them hits strigoi and makes him even angrier. The strigoi turns toward Christian in attempt to revenge the fireball. I back away from the strigoi. Fourth mistake. Christians fire had spreaded behind me and weakened the grubby old wooden floor. I had just enough time to yelp when the floor gave away under me.


	13. Chapter 13: Still alive

Ask and you shall receive

* * *

RPOV

I drifted in and out of consciousness. One moment I was lying on a pile of floorboard and my head was killing me and the next, I think I was in a car. My head felt slightly lighter but I couldn´t open my eyes properly. My hands felt cold even thought someone had put a blanket over me. Slowly I moved my hand to my stomach and preyed to every god I knew. Yes, I could feel some movement. His truly was a miracle and a fighter like his parents. I think I cried a little and had to close my eyes as tears burned a bit. Probably due to some swelling around my eyes.

The knowledge that my baby was okay lulled me back to sleep. I was kind of surprised when Adrian manifested into my dream. "Rose?!

"What?" Adrian looked very distressed and pulled me into his arms. "What´s wrong?"

"Where are you?! Are you okay? What about the baby?!"

"Relax, Adrian!" I just laugh and look at him. "Everything is fine. I am already in the car"

"Rose…. What car?" He looks terrified.

"The car, Adrian! The car that we…." The realisation hits me.

"Others are still at the factory looking for you…" Adrian´s face goes white.

"I…I…." I start to panic. "Did they catch Tasha? Adrian…DID THEY?!" I almost beg him.

"No…" He just whispers. "Tasha got away…."

Doom. That is what was written on all over his face. And probably mine too. I slowly look down and clasp my shirt. "No…"

"But you are still alive! And so is the baby! We will find you!" Adrian lifts my chin with his hand. His eyes are burning with determination. "Tell me everything you saw."

"I didn´t see much, Adrian. I didn't see a thing!" I really start to panic.

"Calm down, dammit!" Adrian shakes me a bit. I try to get my breathing under control. I cannot let Tasha win this easily.

"I´ll go back and try to look around. "I promise.

"I will tell other what´s going on and then I will wait for you to sleep. I will wait for days if I must, I promise. We are not leaving you behind." Adrian swears to me.

"If anything happens…" I start but Adrian interrupts me.

"Nothing will happen so don´t you dare to think so."

"But IF something happens to me… Please tell Dimitri I love him and I am so sorry for not waiting by the car." I start to cry.

"Shh, Rose. Please don´t cry." Adrian squeezes me again. "We will get you. I swear. You just haft to hold on, okay?"

"Yeah. Can´t let that lunatic win." I try not to get any snot on Arian shirt.

"That´s it." Adrian laughs quietly. "You are a fighter. And so is your baby. I´ll let you wake up now. And remember…"

"Look around and you´ll come and get me." I smile a little. "Sorry…hormones."

"It´s alright, Little Dhampir. It´s alright." Adrian smiles at me as the dream slowly fades away.

I didn't open my eyes right away because I could feel someone carrying me. I try to keep my breathing even, and smell and hear what´s going on. Aftershave so no Tasha. Petrol so an airport. Quiet so no witnesses. That someone is claiming up the stairs, so we are already boarding a plane. A plane what could take me anywhere on the world. I think my hearts skips a beat and that someone probably could feel it. He stops and probably watches my face. I try to keep my face as plank as Dimitri and release an innocent and misleading sigh. As if I was having a bad dream.

He buys it and keeps going. I was already bracing myself for a seat, but he just keeps on going to the back of the plane. He sets me down among the luggage. I try to stay still but I can now feel that my wrists and ankles has been bound together and I probably have some kind of bag over my head. So much for seeing where we are going. I just had to wait for announcements. He leans closer and starts to check my bindings. Or so I though until I feel his breath on my wrist. I start to kick and scream but he doesn´t care. He just bits down on my wrist. And as soon as endorphins kick in, I lose consciousness again.

When I finally wake up, I feel crankier that ever. Endorphins my ass. I am lying on an old, dirty and lumpy mattress on the ground. I move my gaze around and find a pair of boots in front of me. And it doesn´t take a genius to guess that those boots belong to Tasha. There she stands and smile down on me triumphantly.

"Well good morning sunshine! We are going to have so much fun together, Rosemarie."

Definitely not…


	14. Chapter 14: That damn car

Dimitri´s point of view

I was standing there and looking at some floorboards covered with blood. Rose´s blood. My wife´s blood. Adrian had called us a few moments ago and I just couldn´t believe it. I had been so focused on protecting ones with me that I hadn't even thought that Rose would have needed me. I had let her down. And now she was gone. I knew what Tasha would do to her.

My fingers twitch toward my phone. I had half a mind to call Tasha and make some kind of deal with her. I would gladly go to her if that meant that she would let Rose and our baby go. But I doubt Tasha would honour that agreement. She would kill Rose one way or another.

I finally turn away from the blood and head back upstairs and out of there. Abe and Eddie were already creating some kind of plan for us. I was going to join them but then I noticed the burned car. That damn car. Adrian had given me Rose´s message and I can´t believe she was worrying about the damn car. I grabbed a piece of plank while walking and started to beat the living shit out of that car. Or what was left of it. Eddie tries to stop me, but Abe tells him not to. Abe just walks to me and gives me a metal pipe. I hate how he looks at me with fellow sympathy. Like he could understand what is going on inside my mind. He probably can in somewhat level because Rose is his daughter, but I just lost both my wife and my daughter.

It feels good to wreck the car. When I am done, I just let the pipe fall from my hands and take a deep breath. "So, what is the plan?"

* * *

Don´t worry, there is more to come. Just had to put this out there first.


	15. Chapter 15: Fire to burn

Rose´s point of view

Tasha smiles like a Cheshire cat and squats down onto my level. "You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this."

I almost tell her that one could clearly tell it from her wrinkles but decide to keep my mouth shut. Best not to make her angry right away. "What do you want, Tasha?"

"I want my life back, but that doesn´t seem possible. So I will just settle for your life." She smiles. "I must say Rose, you are really well protected for a Dhampir. I was almost having a hard time smoking you out of Court."

"What do you mean?" Now I am confused.

"Well, originally I was planning on going directly after you by attacking Court. But Court was too heavily protected and I couldn´t risk losing Christian, Vasilisa or Dimitri. So I settled on attacking St. Vladimir´s. That would make you get up from your pampered ass and leave Court." She smiles content.

"You killed all those children so you could get me to leave Court?" I ask horrified. She really doesn´t have any limits.

"Yes, I had to make an impression so you would take this seriously." She just laughs. "I wanted you to come after me! Alone if possible. You know, I would never go after Dimitri´s family, I love him. I was just waiting outside of Court for you to decide where we would play this game. And you yourself chose Russia."

"I think I overestimated you." I return.

"And that is what I wanted you to. I had to keep my plan very simple for you to start overthinking. By assuming the worst, you would hasty leave your safe haven and come running to me like a headless chicken!" She laughs so hard that tears come out.

"If you were never after my family and friends, why did you kill Alberta?!" I just get mad and irritated by her laugh.

"Collateral damage." She just shrugs. "I could have killed you mother, Alberta or that Ivashkov boy. Like I said, had to make it personal. But Rose, I have to give you some credit too. I think I underestimated you." She points at my stomach. I think I lost any colour that I had left on my face and wrap my arms around the baby.

"You can´t protect it." Tasha smiles sweetly. "I just can´t believe you got yourself pregnant by some random Moroi and even got Dimitri to actually believe it would be his! That was very clever! Poor Dimitri! Men are sometimes so silly."

"It is Dimitri´s." I tell her with straight face. If she understood that this is Dimitri´s son, she might not hurt him. "I´m telling the truth."

"Liar liar, pants on fire." She just smiles without believing me and straightens herself. "I think we should get started. Lev?"

It´s then I notice a strigoi standing in shadows on the other side of the room. This Lev comes closer when called and I gasp. He looks ancient. So old in fact that his skin looks like white silk paper ready to crack. His eyes are so red that you would never guess the original colour. But his face. There´s a huge burn mark that covers almost entire left side of his face. And it looks like a handprint. I slowly look at Tasha, who just walks confidently to Lev and pats his face. "Did you know Rose, that strigois don´t heal that quickly from injuries caused by Moroi magic?"

No, I didn´t but good to know.

"Help her up." Tasha commands and moves to a metal chair that stands at the opposite wall from my bed. I try to fight Lev but fail. I can smell the same aftershave that I smelled on the plain. It probably masks his smell of decay.

"Lev was not supposed to bite you, Rose. I specifically told him not to touch you since you are mine." Tasha apologizes as Lev forces me on the chair and ties me up.

"Let go of me!" I try to yell and yank my hands free.

"Now now Rose. Play nice! "She slaps me. "I have so much planned for us. I want you to experience the true power of all five elements. Spirit might be a little difficult, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. And I want to top it all off with earth. I will probably bury you alive." Tasha daydreams and starts to rub her hands together. I can see some flames glowing between her fingers and lean back against the chair. "Yes, that would be a wonderful gift to your father. Ibrahim Mazur, wasn´t it? Maybe I should carve that baby out of you before that and sell it to Mazur? He would definitely pay high price for it."

"You are some sick bastard." I hiss between my teeth.

"And you have at least three months to stay with me." She grins and places her flaming hands on my wrists. And I do the only thing that I can. I scream.


	16. Chapter 16: Room to breathe

RPOV

I would like to say the first day, but honestly, I couldn´t tell if it was just a day or more. It felt like eternity. First Tasha had broken my courage and pride. She had kept burning my wrists, arms and legs until I cried and begged her to stop. I had kept asking what I could do to make her stop. And she had answered nothing. There was absolutely nothing I could do to make her stop. Make the pain stop.

But she did stop. Even she couldn´t keep burning me with her magic without eating or sleeping. She didn´t drink from me, thank God. She just left me in that dark basement with Lev. Lev just stood by the door behind me. He didn´t speak to me or move from his post. While Tasha was gone I had tried to sleep. But Lev would always walk up to me when I was starting to doze off and slap me to the back of my head. That kept me awake, but I think that Lev could have hit me with way more force if he wanted to. It puzzled me. Why would he hold back?

Tasha eventually came back all fresh and smiling. I haven´t been able get up from the chair and the smell was like it. It made me embarrassed and mortified. If I had known then what Tasha did to me on upcoming days, I would have speared my feelings. She didn´t burn me anymore, not per se. Now that my courage and brave face was gone, she went after my dignity. She ripped my clothes and told me exactly what was so disgusting about my body. Then she would carve little reminders all over my body. Surprisingly I didn´t care so much about her words or about the scares. I guess I already had, in somewhat level, accepted the fact that I wouldn´t be getting out of here alive so it really didn't matter what kind of scares she gave me. Dimitri would never see then anyway. But I did follow that knife closely with my gaze. And I did scream when it went too close to the baby.

That amused Tasha. She laughed. But she did leave the baby alone. I guess killing an unborn child was beneath her. Sure, she could orchestrate a killing of hundred innocent children, but killing a baby was wrong. I think she just didn´t want to get her own hand dirty. She wasn´t even nearly done with her fun when Lev attacked. He just couldn´t hold back anymore with all that blood. Tasha wasn´t even surprised. But I was when Tasha almost let Lev kill me. He already had his fangs on my throat when Tasha finally drove him out of the room with her fire. And she laughed again. She had expected Lev to snap. I guess she was torturing both of us. Lev stayed away for a while but came back eventually.

The third day and Tasha went after my identity. She started by burning my hair. She waited until the flames already burned my scalp before stopping. I probably looked hideous and losing my hair made me cry. Funny how hair can mean so much to me. Then she took a hold of my hand and burned my fingertips of. And motherfucker that hurt. More that the knife.

I was already hysteric when she noticed my wedding ring. I begged her to stop, but she kept heating the metal until the ring was embedded to my flesh. After that I lost conscious and Lev let me sleep.

The fourth day and Tasha was nowhere to be seen. The fifth day and still nothing. I was starting to lose my sanity too. I kept waiting and waiting for her. Still in the chair and in pain. There was too much room to breathe and think. I kept going over and over what happened at the canning factory. I had been careless and rush and it really was my own fault that Tasha got me. It was my fault that Dimitri was probably losing his cool too. And it was my fault that our baby would die here with me. All my fault.

At first, I didn't even notice Tasha coming back. She just walked up to me and untied me. Without Lev I would have fallen right on my face. "Take her to her bed and feed her. I want the baby to live."

I was horrified about the idea of Tasha wanting anything to do with my baby, but I let Lev carry me to the bed. And that lumpy old mattress felt like heaven after the metal chair. Tasha threw some supplement milkshake at me. I didn´t complain even when it hit my shoulder. I just took it and drank it greedily. Lev placed some more bottles and waters on the sand floor next to my bed and left. Tasha soon followed him and after that I have been on my own. Just me and my thought. My guilt. And the darkness around me. I would have gone completely crazy if it wasn´t for my baby. I might have not been able to go to Lissas´ head anymore, but I still closed my eyes and focused on the baby. I would even smile when I felt him move. I would act like a crazy lady when Tasha would come to see me, but deep down I would be okay because of the baby. Tasha would not succeed with her air because I got my baby.

* * *

What do you think is going on with Lev? Or what Tasha is going to do with the baby?


	17. Chapter 17: Death warrant

RPOV

Just to keep up the facade, I started to sing and talk to my baby. I didn´t know if anyone was listening to me, but he was. I admit that I might not be the best singer in the world, but there was a big chance that I would never be able to teach my kid to speak. At least this way he would know my voice subconsciously. Sometimes Lev would come and just watch me. Tasha stayed away and that was the way I liked it.

I told the baby all about Dimitri. How we met, how kind and yet strong he is, that he would be such a good dad for him and just how Dimitri looked. When I was out of ideas, I told him about Lissa. And then about my mother and father, Eddie, Christian, Adrian, Mia and so on. I told him all about my life and what I had gone through. I had time, so I told him everything I could remember. And after that I started to sing all the songs that I could remember. After that Lev stayed away. How rude.

I went on and on with children stories, movies, books, everything I could remember. It gave me something to do and keep myself sane. Sometimes Lev would come and listen to my stories. That worried me a bit. He was too interested in me, and I didn´t need another fan.

Talking about fans, between my stories I tried to sleep. And in my sleep, I would catch a glimpse of Adrian. The dreams would fade away too quickly or crack like there was a bad reception or something. I was probably still in so much pain or otherwise insane that I couldn´t sleep properly. I didn´t think much of it. Still it would have been nice to actually talk to someone.

Finally, when I was almost out of stories, Tasha made an appearance. She looked like hell. Like she hadn´t been able to sleep or feed a long time. But her boots were muddy, so she had been outside. And she was furious.

"You DO NOT tell me what to do!" She shouted on the phone. "I call the shots here!

I tried to stay silent and invisible at my spot. Who ever was on the other side of the phone made Tasha very angry. I could see her fingertips starting to glow.

"I will send you HER HEAD!" She moved the phone from her ear and screamed to the receiver. But she did put the phone back at her ear right after that. She really wanted to hear what the other person said. I started to worry that the caller might be Dimitri or Abe.

"I don´t care! This is not about money!" Definitely Abe. "Dimitri….?"

Upon hearing Dimitri´s name, my heart started to beat little faster and I leaned forward. Was Dimitri on the phone?

"Fine, put him through…" Tasha said sounding calmer and almost shy. "Hey, honey!"

Tasha was already smiling to herself and listening to whatever Dimitri was saying. I was almost desperate to hear his voice too. "Sure, she´s here with me. Why?" She practically flirted.

"You could join me." She coaxed walking closer to me. I leaned back but she snatched my hand on hers. "We could end her together."

I kept watching her fingers move over my burn marks that had just started to heal. She was scraping the tender skin off and I had to grimace. "You want to hear her voice?" Tasha asked sweetly. Oh no… "Yeah, I can do that."

Before I had time to react, Tasha ended her silent treatment, grabbed a hold of my arm and started to burn the skin of my bones. I had to scream. I tried to kick, hit, scratch her face off and bite her but she just held on to my hand until she was satisfied.

"Good enough, honey?" She asked Dimitri. "She is still alive." And with that she ended the call.

"They really have some nerves." She just sighs and starts to tie her hair up. "Try to make a deal with me! What a bunch of silly fools."

"Tasha…" I try to beg her, but she just silences me with a dangerous look.

"I think it´s time for water now." She nods to Lev and heads upstairs in advance.

"Lev! Please! I beg of you! If not for me, think of the baby! Please! He will not survive oxygen deficiency!" I beg and fight him but it´s no use. It´s really like hitting or talking to the brick wall. But that´s not stopping me this time. "NO!" 

Dimitri´s point of view

I fling the phone to the nearest wall and let my head drop to my arms. "Please say you got something… I think I just signed Rose´s death warrant."

"Give me some credit." Abe just sighs heavily and leans over Sydney's shoulder. Sydney work intensively by the computer where the phone had been connected.

"The call was too short for us to have an exact location." Sydney breaks the bad news. Lissa starts to cry and I start to look for more things to break.

"But I have something..." She adds in the middle of my step towards the television.

"And?" I urge her.

"Turkey." She tells us confused. "The call was pinpointed to Turkey."

"She is grazier that we thought." Abe smiles dangerously. If Tasha thought that by hiding in the plain sight would work with Abe, she was terribly wrong. Turkey was Abe´s territory and she chose wrong.


	18. Chapter 18: Let it rain

RPOV

No matter how much I fought him, Lev took me up the stairs to the ground level and to the garage. I got a glimpse of Tasha's car and tried to memorise the registration number. If I survived this, I would keep repeating that number even in my sleep. Maybe Adrian would hear it.

I still tried to fight Lev as he ripped the remaining of my clothes off. His eyes lingered little too long on my breast for my liking, so I tried to cover myself up. Tasha walked closer with a garden hose ready at hand. "Lev, go put the chair ready for Rose." Tasha just ordered and gloated over my discomfort.

I stood my back to the wall, muscles ready for anything. Tasha just stood opposite of me admiring her work. "God, you look like a dead rat!" Se laughed. She can laugh all she wanted. I didn´t care. I just slowly stroked my big stomach. I guess that was enough to remind Tasha what I had that she didn´t. Her gaze hardened, and she opened the hose.

The pressure of water was excruciating to my burned skin. And let me tell you, it wasn´t just some normal garden hose. The pressure must have equalled to firefighters´ equipment. I screamed and tried to turn away from the water, but Tasha made sure that the water hit all of my burn marks. I sobbed and tried to protect my baby from the water. I kept telling myself to take the pain for the baby, but God it hurt almost as much as the fire.

Tasha had a very twisted idea of a shower. She went through my plucked hair, neck, back, legs and arms. I think she tried to knock my over by keeping the extra pressure on my legs, but I kept my other hand on the wall for support. By the time Tasha was satisfied I was shivering from the cold water and my legs almost gave way because of the strain. I slowly collapsed along the wall and curled up. Tasha just sighs and yells for Lev. Lev doesn´t show up right away and Tasha had time to throw me with a jumpsuit. Orange jumpsuit. Fine. I quickly got dressed before Lev came back.

"Everything ready?" Tasha asked little impatient.

"Yes." Lev nods and walks to me. I try to lean back against the wall and away from him, but he just grabs me by the arm and starts to drag me back downstairs. I keep putting up a little fight while looking around me. They really should have blindfolded me. Tasha wasn´t stupid so the lack of blindfold started to make me worried. It didn´t matter what I saw, if I didn´t live till nightfall.

Even my dungeon looked different with more light shining from the doorway. I could see that Tasha had soundproofed the walls and ceiling but left the floor undone. I guess the sand and earth would soak all the blood and other bodily fluids in it. And she didn´t have to look for secluded burial site for her final… I was already sleeping on the top of my own grave. That made sick to my stomach.

I also noticed that Tasha had bricked up the few windows that the house originally had had in the basement. But what held my interest was a ramp like storm door leading straight outside from the basement. Tasha had closed it with metal sheets and padlocks, but I could still see it.

While I was looking around, Lev guided me to a new chair. The chair resembled the dentists´ chair but had some kind of additional tuning done to it. Lev tied my hands, legs and head in place with padded restraints and stood back to let Tasha come closer.

"Roses need watering, don´t they?" She smiled sweetly and almost gently played with my plucked hair. "Should have speared the hair… Dimitri would have wanted it as a relic."

"Go to hell." I can´t help but to hiss. Tasha just takes a deep breath and stretches out her hand for Lev. Lev hands her a rag and I already know what is to come. "You will kill the baby."

"No I won't." Tasha smiles before placing the rag into my mouth so I couldn´t scream or talk. "Lev knows his limits."

Tasha moves to the door and Lev steps closer to adjust the chair to recline. "Call me when she blacks out." Tasha calls from the door before it closes after her. The chair suddenly jerks back, and I am looking up to the sealing and to some handmade plumbing suddenly over my head. I have heard of Chinese water torture, but I still wince as the first drops hit my forehead. Tasha really invests in mental torture since she cannot physically hurt me because of the baby.

First few drops just makes me recoil in my seat and I keep blinking as if it would make the drops go away. Since my head is too secured to the chair, I can´t just turn my gaze elsewhere. At first the drops just make my unconfortable. Lev rounds the chair and leans down to watch my expressions. Sometimes I meet his gaze and sometimes I just watch the drops.

After a while, the dripping of water on my forehead gets really annoying. Like if you ever stayed over to your friends´ or family's house and someone there have a really loud clock on the wall. During the day you can ignore it but when the house is all quiet and you are trying to sleep, the ticking gets impossible to overlook. There is no way that I would fall asleep with water hitting my head.

I keep trying to twitch and jerk my head to the side but it´s no use. I try to pull against my restraints, but they won´t budge. I even yelp against the rag as protect but Lev just keeps smiling. He just stands there and keeps watching me. Freaks me out. The water keeps dripping and Lev just keeps staring. And this goes on and on. Tasha is nowhere to be seen. I guess she has more important things to do than wait for me to go haywire.

Eventually even Lev gets bored and disappears from my line of sight. He doesn´t leave the room though, because I didn´t hear the door open. I just take a deep breath and put on a brave face. I try to distract myself from the drops by humming or tapping my finger against the chair. But the drops just keep pulling me back. The dripping is so annoying that I can´t think of anything other than that.

I am exhausted when Tasha finally returns. And she doesn´t seem happy. "Still not out?"

"No." Lev sighs from somewhere behind me.

"Fill the tank and leave her there for the night. Go hunt and we´ll check the progress in the morning." Tasha orders and returns upstairs. Lev does as told before exiting the room and taking the last light with him. Now I am alone in the darkness with that annoying dripping of water.


	19. Chapter 19: The guardian angel

RPOV

When you think about it, one day doesn´t sound so bad. But when you are actually sitting where I sat for that 24 hours, you get a different perspective. There was no way that I would have been able to sleep. I kept drifting and almost falling asleep, and every time I thought I saw a glimpse of Adrian, I was startled back awake. In the end, I just settled for repeating that damn license number over and over again. With a little bit of luck, Adrian would be able to get a partial number out of my delirium.

I was so exhausted and cranky when Lev and Tasha finally returned, that it took me a while to even understand that Tasha had taken the rag off and was talking to me. "Huh?"

"Good." Tasha just smiles and walks away. What did she just say?!

Lev opens my restraints and helps me to my mattress. He then gives me food which I devour. My stomach protest loudly but I don´t care. It has been too long since I got any solid food. I also practically inhale the water Lev gives me, which is funny considering I have been tortured with water for 24 hours. At some point, I really got thirsty and had tried to get some of that water into my mouth with no luck.

Lev leaves after observing me for a moment and I am finally able to get some sleep. I doubted I would dream of Adrian tonight because of the fatigue, so I am really surprised when I found myself in the middle of a flower field. "Adrian? Is that you?"

"Little Dhampir!" He practically rejoices and runs closer to me. But his smile falters when he gets a good look at me. I too turn to look what I am wearing this time. Adrian had let me keep my own clothes, the clothes that I fall asleep in. I´m still wearing that awful orange jumpsuit, stained with blood, water and dirt. I have rolled the sleeves up so my burned arms are bare. And my hair probably looks like a dead rat just as Tasha said.

"You… You... Have lost some weight." Adrian finally breaks the silence. I can see that he is almost scared of me. Or for me. Right now, I can´t tell the difference.

"Yeah, Tasha has been taking such a good care for me." I try to joke but the smile doesn´t reach my eyes. "I am alright, just really tired."

"You are not fine!" Adrian cries and holds on to my hands. "Sit!"

"I am alive." I remind Adrian and carefully sit down. "How is everyone?"

"Don´t you worry about us. Just concentrate on yourself." Adrian demands and takes both of my hands.

"What are you doing?" I start to wonder. Adrian squeezes my hands and keeps mumbling something. And suddenly I feel the telltale sign of spirits flowing through me. I try to pull my hands away from Adrian´s clasp, but he is not letting go of me. I can see sweat starting to form on his forehead and the dark bags under his eyes to get heavier. "Adrian, please stop." I try again to pull my hands away.

This time Adrian lets my hands go and gasps for air. "Are you insane?" I accuse him.

"Very much so." Adrian grins and wipes the sweat. He looks now even more tired.

"You are not a healer." I remind him.

"I have been practicing it with Lissa. I´m getting pretty good at healing, thank you very much." Adrian just smiles weakly.

"I don´t think even Lissa could dreamwalk and heal at the same time." I chastise him.

"Probably. But you look really unwell. And the baby…" Adrian whispers and keeps watching my aura.

"What about him?" I ask scared. If anything happens to him, I swear…

"The aura is getting bleak." Adrian looks at me like his already giving me his condolences.

"NO! The baby is not dying! Do something!" I beg him.

Adrian puts his hand directly on my stomach and closes his eyes. I try to fight the tears as I watch Adrian's face. I can see the fatigue taking its toll on him, but this time I don´t push him away. I just place my hands on top of his as if I would be also giving some of my life and light to the baby. I just pray that it works.

Adrian almost collapses on top of me. "Adrian?! Say something!"

"How do you feel...?" He mumbles and tries to collect himself.

"Better." I admit. Some of the burn marks have faded, but those didn´t matter. What matters is that the baby gives me a strong kick. And then I start to cry. It´s probably because of the lack of sleep and the relief. I hug Adrian as we both gather our strength. "Thank you, Adrian."

"You´re welcome, Little dhampir." He whispers and keeps rubbing my back.

"Adrian!" I exclaim suddenly. "Did you get the number?"

"Partial." Adrian too gets excited. "Give me the rest!"

I tell him the number and I also tell him everything I can remember about the house. About the garage, the basement, the soil, the architecture. Everything I can think of. And I tell him about Lev and how he creeps me out. Adrian shared my discomfort about him, but I keep on going. I tell him about Tasha and how she can be very psychopathic and lay in wait for her prey but still has a short temper. We together form a plan to use Tasha's temper against her. And he is going to call Oksana and ask about the possibility of having Lissa dreamwalk with Adrian. I also beg him to relay everything to Dimitri and others. Adrian needs to be my broken telephone to outside world. My guardian angel keeping me insane and my baby alive.

Adrian then tells me everything he knows about Dimitri´s and Abe's plan, where they are right now and what everybody is up to. The stories bring a smile to my face. And when I finally wake up to Lev looming over me, the smile stays.


	20. Chapter 20: Out of time

RPOV

Tasha was busy playing tag with Abe and Dimitri, so she had placed Lev in charge. At first, Lev had just watched me smile away during the water torture without comments, but then he started to ask questions. Which I didn´t answer. Why should I? He had asked me what exactly made me smile. Maybe I had gone completely mad. Or maybe my guardian angel visited me every time I closed my eyes. I could see the nightly visits take their toll on Adrian, but he was hell bent not to leave me alone. I was really grateful for that even though when asked, I had just rolled my eyes.

But even Adrian couldn´t help me during the daytime. Lev still made me sit on that recliner chair and suffer through it all. And the torture was finally sinking in. Gradually even Adrian's stories couldn´t keep my spirit up. He tried to flood me with spirits to help me and the baby. Sometimes I could feel Oksana join him on the background. Oksana had been able to travel to Turkey whereas it was required to Lissa to stay at the States.

Adrian and Oksana did their very best to help the baby grow and me to stay sane. But I was really tired. Adrian kept the nightmares away, but that also meant that I couldn't get any deep sleep that I so desperately needed. I knew I was deteriorating. Adrian´s help had only been a temporary solution. Lev noticed too that my smile faltered and I started to get desperate.

This morning he woke me up again with breakfast and a cold bucket of water so clean myself up. Slowly I got up and washed my face back hunched and tears in my eyes. Adrian had just been telling me about their progress and how they had been able to narrow down the search to a couple of towns. That had been a sign of hope. But I knew that hope could be deceptive. Now they were literally so close to saving me that I knew Tasha would come back and finish me before they had a change. This 24 hours would make it or break it. And my mind was really giving up on me.

Lev let me eat and then helped me to my chair. I didn´t have any strength to fight him. I just sat down and tried to beg him with my eyes, tears rolling down my cheeks. "Please, Lev…."

"I am sorry, Rose." He tells me with his broken English and secures my head. "I really liked you."

"Why?" I just whisper and close my eyes. Lev stays quiet and I open my eyes confused. He just stands there watching me and he hadn´t opened the water faucet.

"You don´t know me?" He asks.

"Should I?" I tried to study his face and wonder where I might have seen him before. Now that I think of it, there is something very familiar with his looks.

"I know Dimitri." He tells me quietly, almost like he is miles away. He looks at me without really seeing me. Like he is remembering something. "I met him at Saint Petersburg when he was awakened."

This knowledge makes my heart beat faster and my breath hitch. Is he Dimitri´s friend? Or an enemy? Will he help me?

"They are looking for me. Dimitri is now looking for me." I try to beg.

"I know. I have seen them." He nods and finally looks directly at me. "He has changed."

"Yes, he is a dhampir again." I confirm unsure what it is that he wants to hear.

"No, that´s not it." He sighs and strokes my forehead. "He has grown."

"Do-do you mean you knew Dimitri as a child?" I want to dodge his hand but on the other hand, I cannot afford to make him angry.

"Yes, a child." He smiles little. "And Randall and Nathan as a child. And their father before him as a child."

"I don´t understand." I whisper dread spreading through my veins.

"The blood is thicker than water." He tells me regarding me curiously and setting his hand on my stomach. I want to scream for him to take his hands off of me. I did not see this one coming.

"You are not getting this baby." I tell him, my voice shaking with anger and fear.

"I do not want it. I am curious. How was it possible?" He asks me.

"You can go to hell with Tasha." I hiss. He leans back looking not so impressed. "If blood is truly thicker than water, you should be helping Dimitri! You should be helping this baby!"

"Help Dimitri?" He asks pondering the option.

"They are looking for this baby! If I won´t make it, please, help Dimitri to find this baby!" I try to bargain for the baby. "A baby needs a family to grow and Tasha cannot give him that!"

"Tasha will be back soon." He warns me.

"I don´t care! Go find them!" I particularly scream. Lev watches my intensive reaction for a second before opening the faucet and leaving the room. And I can just pray that he leaves for finding Dimitri. I let the tears come and try to tell myself to hold on. Hold on to that string of hope. In the middle of my pep talk to myself, the baby kicks violently. And the kick really hurts. I even protest out loud. "Take it easy there!"

The baby doesn´t listen to me and keeps moving around. I swear to God, he is going to be a soccer player or a wrestler with that kind of movement. The moving gets really uncomfortable as he kicks my internals around. Maybe Adrian gave him a little too much of spirits! It takes him really long to settle down and when I finally can breathe normally again, the door flies open.

Tasha storms down the steps, head bleeding and hands black with ash. I try to lean back as she just starts hitting and punching my face. It hurts and I have no way of protecting myself. "Please stop!" I try to yell through my tears.

She steps back gasping for breath. "You! You really outdid yourself this time! You little shit! Little snake like your daddy!" I take it that Lev really did turn against Tasha.

"Are they coming?" I ask trying not to smile. But Tasha sees my lip twitching and pulls out a knife. That makes my smile falter really fast.

"No, they will not find this place. I will take care of Lev." She opens my jumpsuit to reveal my stomach.

"Please, Tasha! Don´t do this! Please! I BEG YOU!" I scream as she leans down with her knife. But before she has a chance to cut open my skin I spasm violently. Tasha leaps back surprised. It takes me a moment to realize that that was a contraction. Tasha realizes this too and a wide smile spreads on her lips. Now I am really out of time.


	21. Chapter 21: The messenger

DPOV

Some good really had came out of our call to Tasha. We had been able to locate the call to Turkey and Turkey was Abe's home ground. By the next sundown, we were already up in the air and making our way to Ankara. We weren´t sure that Tasha, in fact, was in Ankara, but that was the closest city to the region Sydney had provided for us. The customs didn´t even look our way as Abe led us out of the terminal and into a car. And it wasn´t a surprise when the car drove us to a lavish hotel. Abe owned a penthouse in the hotel and we had every resource we could imagine within our reach.

We were pretty quickly able to locate the plane Tasha had used Abe himself had questioned the pilot and the flight attendants. They were rather cooperative and had provided us with a good picture of Tasha. She really hadn't changed and had remained as a Moroi. Maybe it was easier to get around as a Moroi. The flightpath narrowed down our search indeed to Ankara and its region, but the area that we had to cover was still significant. Our best chance was to monitor strigoi movement and hopefully get a glimpse of Tasha hunting. She couldn´t just walk to a feeder now that she was one of the most wanted fugitive in the world.

Abe also had put a word out there for Tasha. We had both the official and the underground society looking for her. We had eyes everywhere and we ourself kept going over the surveillance tapes of all the strigoi attacks at the area. Though Tasha was being really careful. We would get a glimpse of her in the west side of the Ankara and when we got there, we would get a phone call of a sighting of her at the east side of the city. She really was playing with us and we were always one step behind her. She deliberately kept her feedings unregular and traveled even long distances to hunt. It made us frustrated, but also relieved. If she was traveling, she couldn´t be torturing Rose.

My heart almost stopped when Adrian had run into the room one morning and yelled that he had been able to contact Rose. Everyone had started asking questions at the same time but I had just rushed to Adrians´side and shuck him. "Where is she?!". Adrian had told us every little detail about Roses descriptions of the place she was held in, about Lev the strigoi keeping an eye on her and about Tasha. It broke my heart to learn that she was kept in such bad conditions while pregnant. Back at Baia, we had made sure that everything had been perfect for my sisters while they were pregnant. We had attended to their every need and kept them safe and content. I had wished that I could have offered the same for my own wife and baby.

But my heart truly bled when Adrian reluctantly described Rose to us. Such an innocent question as "How is she holding up?" ended with tales of torture. It made my heart sink and the uncontrollable rage lift its ugly head again. My famous self-control had really been slipping lately and, I swear to God, Tasha would pay for it.

But Adrian's success took as a step closer to finding Rose. We hadn't really considered that Tasha would still be in liaison with strigois. Strigois needed to feed more often that Tasha, so now we had better a change of finding them. We changed our strategy. We still kept our eyes open for Tasha but concentrated our focus and energy on finding this Lev person. We only had Adrian description to go on, but that didn´t weaken our determination.

Adrian was able to keep in contact with Rose through their dreams and we came up with the idea of healing Rose remotely with spirits. Of course, it didn´t work as effectively as it would have in close proximity but it was still something. Adrian was going through feeders like socks, but he refused to stop. I was really grateful to Adrian and did everything I could to find him feeders and keep him comfortable. He was our only link to Rose and everyone was pampering him best they could. Abe even fly Mark and Oksana to Ankara to help Adrian. Oksana's job was to heal Adriann and sometimes help him with dreamwalking. Rose has asked to heal the baby first and we had honored her decision. It was eating me alive to think that she was making us chose the baby over her.

This morning Adrian told us the bad news. Rose was deteriorating fast so we needed to come up with something and fast. We decided finally to scatter around the city and go to the most popular nightclubs. It had been a long time since we had any sightings of Tasha or Lev and this night was our best and soon the only option to find them. I had put on my duster and hed to the west side of Ankara for a round. I sat in the bar drinking my vodka and keeping an eye on the room. Some of the girls had come to talk to me but I wasn´t interested in human or dhampir company. I kept watching a strigoi woman go around the club talking to the unsuspecting humans.

'"She´s pretty." Someone says from the bar stool next to me. I just growl something as a response and don´t take my eyes away from the woman. Maybe I could kidnap her and torture answers out of her. She has to know something about the other strigois at the area. Under normal circumstances I wouldn´t even consider something like that, but now...The person stays next to me and I can feel his gaze on me.

I finally turn to glance at him and I had to do a double take. He looks just like Randall. I swear to God, if he had more modern clothes and he was little shorter, he would be an exact replica. My hand automatically reached for my stake as I remark the red eyes.

"You don´t need that." He just says changing to Russian. His Russian doesn´t settle my nerves and I keep myself ready for attack.

"I am Lev." He finally says and watches my hand. Of course, he is. The strigoi we have been looking for weeks just walked up to me in the dimly lit bar and started to make a conversation with me.

"What do you want? Did Tasha send you?" I question clanging little around me. This could be an ambush. I am finally alone and Tasha could have sent her strigois after me.

"Tasha doesn´t know I am here." Lev relaxes a bit and orders a vodka for him. "Rose asked me to find you."

"She did?" I ask still suspicious.

"Yes, the blood is thicker than water." Lev just smiles little and hand me a paper. "The address." I take the paper confused and wary. I don´t fully understand what he means but I open the paper anyway. The address is located near here, but on the better neighborhood that we hadn´t considered. I lift my gaze to ask about the address but Lev is already heading to the door.

I quickly follow him and call Abe. I had just managed to give him the address when something hits me. I lose the phone but am able to scramble back on my feet stake ready at hand. Tasha stands before me smiling gently. "Dimka…"


	22. Chapter 22: Do not hesitate

DPOV

There she stands, right in front of me. Tasha.

"Dimka…" She says a gentle smile on her lips. She seems relaxed as if she knows I am alone. Slowly I straighten my back but still remain alert. I did notice she holds her hand just behind her thigh as if she is hiding something from my view. I lower my stake but still keep it ready.

It pains me to see her like this. She is still as beautiful as ever but there is something truly sad about her eyes. She might be smiling but I can see the tiredness and distress in her posture. Maybe she even knows herself that she had taken this too far. I keep thinking that I might be able to make her see some sense.

"Tasha…" I try tentatively.

"It is so good to see you, Dimka." She almost moans. "I have been waiting."

"What have you been waiting for, Tasha?" I ask and remember my lost phone. I just hope that the phone had remained intact and the call with Abe is still connected. If this is an ambush, that might be my only salvation.

"For you of course!" Tasha smiles slightly and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. She even avoids my eye contact for a brief second. Is she nervous?

"Is that so?" I just keep talking. Maybe I can stall for time.

"I have to admit that originally I was just after Rose and revenge, but now… Now you are here." She goes as far as checking me out.

"Here I am." I admit back. I really want to ask how Rose is, but that would just anger her. So I settle for taking a quick look around me. So far so good, no strigois.

"You found me." She smiles happily and starts to walk toward me. I automatically take a step back and positioning my body so that my good side is toward her. She stops and regards my position warily. "You know that I would never hurt you, right? You are my Dimka."

"Tasha… I am not your Dimka." I did consider just agreeing with her and letting her take me to Rose, but my conscious doesn´t allow me to lead her on any longer. And we already had the address. "I was never yours, Natasha."

She doesn't take it lightly that I called her Natasha. She straightened her back, sets her jaw and brings that hidden hand in front of her. I now can see that she is holding a gun. "I am so sorry for you Dimka. She really has brainwashed you with her body."

"No, Natasha." I tell her keeping myself put and my hands in sight. I try to look as unthreatening as I can, but it´s not easy not to react to a gun.

"Yes, Dimka. She is a vixen that has hexed you with Vasilisa´s spirits. You are just in so deep that you cannot see the light. But I will free you." She tells me and slowly raises her hand to caress my cheek. "And then we can be together. That is what you wanted before she intervened."

"What are you going to do to her?" I finally ask. I try not to say her name as if I would be making her an object and irrelevant to this conversation. But that doesn´t bluff her and she slowly lowers her hand unhappy.

"I am going to kill her." She promises me. I can see the determination in her eyes. "And I am going to take the baby. We can finally be a family, Dimka! I can make all your dreams come true. You just have to trust me and give me a day to tie up the loose ends, okay?"

Only now, when the time is up, I can see the truth that I have been so keen on denying. Tasha truly has lost it. She can´t handle the truth and the real world so she had made up her own reality which she is now trying to realize at all costs. I have never been forced to face a friend turned strigoi, but this is what it must feel like. I feel sorry for the old Tasha and little disappointed that she let this happen. For this new Tasha, that I don´t even recognize, I only feel hate. She deliberately hurt Rose and countless innocent people. She is crazy and dangerous. And she must be stopped.

She must have seen a dangerous look gross my face because she is narrowly able to dodge my stake. I truly wished I had a gun. It feels so much worst and personal to kill your friend with a stake. I hit her shoulder instead of her heart and some blood soaks her shirt. She curses and quickly sidesteps me. She´s looking at the wound as if she can't believe it. I hesitate. She looks scared and confused. "Dimka..?"

I swallow the lump in my throat and lunge. She quickly recovers but doesn´t shoot me right there and then. Instead, she counterstrikes my punches with equal force. I can see she is getting angry. I use her overpowering emotions against her and knock her against the wall. I take the gun out of her hands and slowly point it at her. The struggle had lasted only for a minute but now that I actually have her at the gunpoint, the time seemed to stop. She slowly takes a deep breath, looks me straight in the eyes and holds her chin up before speaking. "I forgive you, Dimka. You don´t know what you are doing."

"I am sorry, Natasha." I whisper and let my emotion show for a second.

She just smiles at me and just as I am about to pull the trigger with a heavy heart, she attacks me like a wildcat. She scratches my face and I miss my shot. She hits my head with her fists like a mad woman and uses even her fire to bring me down to my knees. She quickly kicks the gun out of my hand and grabs a bunch of my hair in her fist. She bends my head back with force and leans down to whisper something to my ear but is yanked back. I fall on my hand and knees before quickly lifting my head to see what is going on.

I have never in my life been so happy to see Abe and Pavel. Pavel fights Tasha off and Abe helps me up. Abe takes one look at my expression and burned shirt before shaking his head disapproving. I really screwed up this time. I had just made the exact same mistake that I had warned Rose about. I had let my emotions get the best of me and hesitated. I should have known better. But knowing and actually doing are two totally different things. After all, Tasha has been my friend for years…

"DIMKA!" Tasha yells boiling with madness, but Pavel keeps her at bay. "YOU FILTHY DOGS! HE IS MINE!"

She even goes as far as attacking Pavel with fire. I have to give it to the man that he can hold his own surprisingly well against a fire user. I take it that Abe must have trained all of his guardians to fight against magic. We slowly join Pavel. The only thing separating us from Tasha is her sea of fire. She keeps her flaming eyes on me, ready to attack even through the fire. Abe regards the fire before turning to me.

"Where´s the strigoi?" He asks keeping his voice low. But based on Tasha´s hateful looks she hears us.

"Got away." I just mumble and keep looking at Tasha.

"Let´s go." Abe orders. It dawns on me then that Tasha might be here to just delay us from the address we got from Lev. Tasha turns on her heels and sprints towards her end of the street. We don´t waste any time hurrying to our car. I just pray that we get to this address before Tasha does.


	23. Chapter 23: Game over

Tasha´s point of view

I had no idea how they were able to track down my flight, but God those idiots were giving me a hard time leading them away from the house. I even had to left Lev in charge while I was out. They really wanted the bitch back. Ibrahim had eyes everywhere and I started to feel the pressure.

It didn´t help that Rose was smiling away like she knew something. I would have liked to beat the shit out of that smile but had to restrain myself. I needed the baby for my plans and beating a pregnant woman would jeopardize that. So I turned my energy to killing every strigoi that I had met and talked to. Sometimes I had to travel to other cities and sometimes I just had to bounce from another side of the city to the other. I doubted Dimitri and others had any idea what I was doing in those places, so from time to time, I let the cameras catch a glimpse of me. To keep them busy. Since I could feel the loop tightening around my neck, it became even more important to kill the loose ends. Some of those strigois knew too much and I wouldn't risk them being captured by Ibrahim. I knew he could be as ruthless as I was.

It became a game for me. To get ahead of Ibrahim, kill some leads on the way and watch from the shadows as they were always one step behind me. I was leading them around the city by the nose. It felt really good to outwit the great Ibrahim Mazur! At first, I had his daughter and now this! Makes me laugh!

Everything had been perfect until Lev had to ruin it. I knew he was a softy. I had used his interest in his bloodline to get to him, but I didn´t think he would have the balls to actually betray me for some unborn mutation. I heard him tell Rose that he was related to Dimitri. And the bitch actually convinced him to help the baby. So I waited for Lev in the hallway.

"How is she?" I asked once he had closed the door.

"Done." He had the nerves to play innocent.

"It´s time for the next phase?" I wanted to see where his loyalty laid.

"…Yes." Lev answered after a short pause.

"Good." I had nodded and given way for Lev to leave. He hesitated at first but then hurried out of the door. Traitor. I was already heading down to the basement when I changed my mind. Rose could wait for few more hours. I would deal with Lev first. I gave him a head start before following him to a bar.

I would have never even dreamed that he would lead me straight to Dimitri´s waiting arms. I let Lev leave and waited for Dimitri near the entrance my gun ready for any troubles. I knocked him out of the main street to a more secluded alley before confronting him. And my God was he gorgeous. I could have taken him then and there. The only downside was that his brains were all mushy from the banging with Rose. He had tried to feed my Rose´s lies but I just saw right thru them.

He asked me what I was going to do with Rose and I told him the truth. One of us had to be honest. He pondered my proposal for a minute and I was starting to get anxious. I was about to ask him for an answer when I notice his eyes darken. I had just enough time to duck to the side when he attacked me. He attacked me! He stabbed my shoulder with a stake!

At first, I didn´t even get what had happened. Dimka seemed sorry for his actions but quickly turned his face to an unmoving mask of the guardians. And he attacked me again. He even pointed me with my own gun! That´s when I got it. Spirits. Somebody was controlling Dimka from afar. Oh, my poor Dimka. I had to intervene to save him from himself. He actually might have shot me and regretted it later.

I already had Dimka on his knees when that Snake found us. He had his little guarding dog separate me and Dimka. I was determined not to let them take Dimka away from me, but the guardian overpowered me. He clearly had some training against offensive magic. I even had to create a wall of flames to keep him from killing me. He really had some anger management issues! The guardian kept telling me how I was going to pay for what I had done. That made me laugh out loud and I almost missed Dimka telling the Snake that Lev had escaped.

I took it that Lev had given Dimka the address to the house before disappearing. I took off running to my car. I had to get there before they did. I would deal with Lev later. I drove like a maniac to the house and even left my car on the lawn. I had been the first to reach the house and I stormed in. Some of my minions were loitering around on the sofa, watching tv and wiping their hands clean from the blood. I was about to start yelling at them for drinking in the house but changed my mind. They would provide a good meat shield against the guardians when they got here.

I didn´t bother with warnings. The strigois had it coming for them anyway. I just walked to the hidden door and marched down to the basement. One look at the hideous face of that little brat had me boiling and I gave her the treatment I would have liked to give to Ibrahim. I knew my time was up so hurting her wasn´t an issue anymore. "You! You really outdid yourself this time! You little shit! Little snake like your daddy!"

At first, she was crying and begging for mercy and then she had the nerves to smile at me. "Are they coming?" The little shit! I knew something was up. I pulled my knife out of my jeans. I don´t have time for her little mindfucks.

"No, they will not find this place." I closed the hidden door after me, and Lev is the only one besides me that knows how to open it. The other strigois don´t care what goes around down here as long as I keep bringing them more victims. "I will take care of Lev."

I open her ugly jumpsuit and it feels disgusting to even touch the fabric. But this way it´s easier for me to see where I am cutting. Rose tries begging again and it´s really getting on my nerves. I knew this point would come, so I had done some research on C-sections. I learned the basics so that I wouldn´t hurt the baby too much but I really don´t give a shit if Rose dies in the process.

I already had my knife ready when she started to shake. What is it with this day and interruptions! I lean back and look at the stomach. I could have sworn I saw something move in there. The baby is not only a mutant, it´s also a freak of nature! Rose seems scared and shocked. Ah, but of course. That was a contraction. The baby wants out. Perfect timing. I tear the rest of her jumpsuit away and kick her legs apart.

"Please Tasha!" She begs again as I sit on my heels between her legs.

"Shut the fuck up and push." I tell her putting the knife away. She tries to close her legs, but I won´t let her.

"No." She tells me defiantly.

"Listen to me. You have exactly two minutes to give birth or I am cutting you open like a fish." I tell her and put my hands on her stomach. She grabs my wrists and tries to move my hands away. I just slap her and my hands on her stomach again.

"You idiot! It takes hours after the first contractions to actually give birth!" She screams at me.

"Well, we don´t have hours." I tell her and start to push the baby down with all of my bodyweight. She screams in agony and tries trashing around. It must hurt but I don´t care. She screams, cries and even wets herself. Disgusting.

"One minute, Rose." I tell her. She just loses it and starts calling me by not so friendly names. I just push harder and take the knife out. I make a pretty gruesome cut on her lady parts to make room for the baby. Her screams almost block out the sound of the front door being blown to pieces. The whole house trembles with the impact and I can hear multiple footsteps running around on the floor above us. Some dust and rocks fall on us, but I just brush them away. Rose tries to scream but I know that the soundproofing will hold. And the strigois will keep the intrudes busy.

"Last change, Rose." I tell her the knife ready.

"Fuck you, Tasha." She just tells me through her pain and tears. "You will not get away with this. You already lost. Game over."

"I never lose." I tell her with a smile and finally cut her open. She screams again and I even cringe at the sight. That is not pretty. At all. I try to move most of the flesh out of the way, so I can see but I think I do nick the baby a little. Cutting her flesh is surprisingly smooth with such a good and sharp knife as I have. I lift the baby out of her and take one look. Girl. I was hoping for a boy.

By some miracle, Rose is still conscious as I dump the baby on her chest as I start cutting the umbilical cord. First, the baby is all silent, but Rose gets it to cry a little. Good.

"Hey there little baby girl…" I can hear her mumbling to the screaming baby. "Hey Adriana…"

"Ugly name for an ugly baby. I´m changing it." I tell her and start cutting. The cord is too rubbery to make a clean cut, but I still got it done. I hurry to fetch some clean towels from the wall as something hits the door really hard. The door cracks but doesn't give in.

"In here! Help!" Rose screams and gets the baby to scream too.

"ROZA?!" I can hear Dimka yelling. Shit. I hurry back to Rose and start to take the baby away from her.

"Please, Tasha! No! DO NOT TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!" Rose scream desperately but she can't fight me without hurting the baby. I take the baby from her hands and wrap it in a towel. I see that I had made a little cut on its head just behind the ear. Oh well, that will heal, and its hair will probably hide it anyway.

While Dimka is trying to break the door down and Rose is trying to crawl after me despite the blood loss, I just walk to the ramp and blow the metal sheets and lock up. It takes me a couple of tries to break the barricade, but I manage. I really am a super mom. Blowing things up while holding a baby!

The car lights shine to the basement as I walk up towards the night. I am already stepping over the threshold when Dimka finally breaks the door down and dashes the stairs down to the basement.


	24. Chapter 24: Choose wisely

RPOV

I really am grateful to Adrian for everything he did for me past these… well…times. He really had stepped up and been my rock. My own guardian angel. But maybe he did a little too good job with spirits. It was way too early to go into labor and for a second, I panicked. Maybe the baby wouldn´t yet survive outside the uterus. Or maybe Tasha would just kill him the moment he took his first breath. I had been the only thing protecting this baby from Tasha and the world, and now he was about to be born. After that, there would be nothing holding Tasha back.

Those traitorous bittersweet tiers run down my cheeks as I tried to beg Tasha to give us more time. "Please, Tasha!"

She wasn't having any of that. She even gave me two minutes to deliver the baby. I wasn't an expert on babies or childbirth, but even I knew that giving birth in two minutes was just not happening. This baby might be a miracle, but she was asking for impossible. I was about to tell her where she could shove her deadlines, but then she started the push the baby down. And mother f… that hurt. She literally was pushing my organs and bones apart. Even though the pain I was extremely worried what that kind of abuse would do to the baby. I really didn´t care about my body or dignity as long as the baby survived.

I don´t even want to think about all the things Tasha did to me during those few minutes. I would never tell a soul what happened down in that basement. It was my cross to bear. The only hope that kept me going through it all was the sounds of the struggle coming from upstairs. I knew help was so close, but the pain was just too much. I tried to cope with it by screaming, crying and by giving Tasha few witty remarks.

She really didn´t like me pointing out that she lost this game of hers and I´m pretty sure that it was then that she decided to just kill me. She cut me open without mercy and dug the baby out of my body. It felt surreal. I was watched as she moved my flesh and organs out of the way and I didn´t feel a thing. I felt the cut but after that nothing. It was like my soul had left my body behind and escaped to my head. I didn´t even see my neck or shoulders. I was just a floating head watching Tasha dig around a body.

That all came crashing down the second Tasha put the baby on my chest. It was like I was slammed back to my body. I took a ragged breath and moved my gaze to the baby. A baby girl. I started to cry and shiver. There she finally was. I had always pictured that the baby would be a boy, but there she was. Beautiful as ever. She clearly had Dimitris´ nose, browns, and jaw. Even a blind man could see that she was Dimitris´ daughter. But she still had my lips. And my hair. She already had a few curls of thick dark hair on top of her hair. Tasha had made a small cut just behind her ear but that didn´t bleed too much.

But she was so small and colorless. My sobbing became more desperate as I tried to rub her chest to get her to take her firsts breath. It takes me a couple of tries but finally her instincts kick in and she starts to cry. I think I screamed out of relief just as loudly as she did.

It´s a good thing that Tasha put her on me because the moment she starts to cry my body relaxes. After all, screaming baby is a breathing baby. I have lost a lot of blood and my hands stop working with me. But still, I smile and greet the baby for the first time. "Hey there little baby girl. You really are a beauty. You will bring the boys to their knees just like your mom. And just like your godfather Adrian. But I hope that you will be as lever headed as your dad and as kind as your godmother Lissa…"

I had a lot of time to think about the future when Tasha gave me the silent treatment. I had already decided that if I didn´t make it out of here alive, Lissa would be a perfect person to raise my kid with Dimitri. Dimitri would teach her everything she needed to know about our world and to use her head above all. Lissa would teach her kindness and compassion. And Adrian would be the cool parent who teaches her to drink and party responsibly. Because let´s face it, this was my daughter. As wise and gentle as she might be, she still had my blood in her. And the Hathaway blood called to get in the trouble.

But it was the moment that I actually saw her and knew she was a girl I decided to honor my guardian angel. After all, without Adrian, neither one of us would be here. So I named my daughter after Adrian. "Hey Adriana".

Of course, Tasha had to ruin my perfect moment with my daughter. "Ugly name for an ugly baby. I´m changing it." I just roll my eyes at that. She can´t do jack shit about it. She isn´t getting away with this baby. Adriana will be fine and Dimitri is almost here. Something hits the door and I try to tell them to hurry. "In here! Help!"

"ROZA?!"

Dimitris´ voice brings a smile to my lips. Just a little longer. I keep watching the door but suddenly Tasha is kneeling in front of me and lifting Adriana up. I try to hold on to her with my last strength. "Please, Tasha! No! DO NOT TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!"

She doesn´t give in and keeps preying my fingers away from Adriana. I try to hold on, but I don´t want to hurt her. She is screaming enough as it is. It breaks my heart to let Tasha hold her and wrap her up. I try to lean closer to them as if that would keep Tasha and Adriana from leaving me. But it doesn´t. Tasha gets up and despite my cries walks to that stupid trap door. I desperately try to find the strength to go after them, and adrenaline and fear help my crawl few steps further.

She already had the doorway cleared when the basement door finally breaks down. Dimitri comes storming in and quickly tries to assess the situation. I´m on the ground crawling after Tasha. Tasha is standing by the opening holding a crying baby. Dimitris´ eyes bounce between me and Tasha and I desperately try to message him about the baby. He seems to understand that something is wrong, and his eyes widen as he notices all the blood coming from my stomach. He´s about to take a step closer to me as Tasha spokes breaking the silence.

"Oh, Dimka. You found us." She even smiles and rocks Adriana. It makes me sick to see her with our baby.

"Natasha… What have you done?" Dimitri asks horrified and tries again to join me.

"Dimka! Do not take a step or I will drop this baby!" Tasha yells. That stops everyone. I almost stop breathing. Dimitri freezes and looks at Tasha like she had gone completely mad. Which she really had a long time ago.

"Dimka… I love you…" She whispers and glances at Adriana. "We love you."

"Tasha, please, put the baby down." Dimitri begs and slowly puts his stake on the ground. "I will not attack. Let´s talk about this, please."

"We have already talked enough. Come with us, Dimka. You are a father now. You need to be with your family. The baby, she needs you. And I need you." Tasha tells him. Dimitri looks heartbroken and glances at me. I try to smile at him. I already know that I won´t make it but if he can take Adriana away from Tasha, he should do it.

"Do not make me choose." He whispers. I don´t know who he is talking to. Maybe to both of us or maybe to God.

"There is nothing to choose, Dimka. It´s already too late for Rose." Tasha tells and assesses my blood loss. "Let´s go home, honey."

I can practically see his inner turmoil. "It´s okay, Comrade… Save her…" I try to tell but I really am starting to lose the adrenaline. My head gets heavier and heavier. I try to keep my gaze on Adriana to see her for one last time. Her cry rings in my ears but that´s okay. If I must go, I´ll be happy to go hearing my daughters voice.

I slowly turn my head towards Dimitri to give him the last pep talk. But my breath hitches. He has made his choice. Tasha screams. Adriana screams. I scream. He has chosen wrong. He chose me…


	25. Chapter 25: Love and hate

RPOV

After Dimitri so generously had chosen me over our daughter, Tasha had vanished into the night. Abe, Pavel and Christian hadn't been far behind Dimitri but just enough for Tasha to escape. They had gone after her while Dimitri carried me to the meeting point and Adrian's waiting arms. I think I might have died a few times during that night, but they were medically able to restart my heart. Next thing I knew I was at the hospital and Dimitri was sitting next to my bed. His head was bowed into his arms and his back was slowly rising and falling. He was most likely asleep due to the exhaustion. I let my gaze wander and wound Abe sitting on the other side of my bed.

He met my gaze and gave me a sad smile. Smile that conveyed sympathy and condolence. It made me scream. My voice was hoarse and broken but that didn't stop me. I screamed for my own stupidity, for Dimitri´s wrong choice and for our lost daughter. I screamed for the pain of losing my purpose to live. They might have physically saved me but at what cost?

Dimitri woke at my screams and panicked. He tried to give me some kinds of shitty explanation but I didn't listen. I just cried and yelled for them to get out of my room. Reluctantly they gave way to a Moroi doctor and a nurse. I would have liked to be left the fuck alone, but they had to give me some kind of shot to calm me down. As I sunk back to the bed I kept my gaze on Dimitri. "This is all your fault…" I saw that those words broke him apart, but I didn't give a damn. He had chosen wrong.

During the next couple of days, I had many visitors. Some even bought me insignificant things like flowers, chocolate and doughnuts. I didn't talk to them even though they tried to tell me that they would help me find Tasha. I already knew that even if we did find Tasha, it would already be too late. Adriana did not make it and nothing else mattered.

Lissa came to see me one time. Adrian and the doctors had done the necessary to keep me alive, but the scars were my own to heal. Lissa though had other plans. She couldn't handle my new look and had taken the liberty of healing me while I slept. She apparently thought she was doing me a favor. I had woken up to her trying to heal my stomach. I had started to scream the bloody murder and actually hit her. The guards had not been too kind and understanding about me hitting the Queen. I was restrained and put back to sleep. But before the world faded away from me I had told exactly what I would do to Lissa if she ever again tried to undermine or wipe out the only link I had left to my daughter.

After that, I was finally left alone. My time at the hospital was relatively short thanks to the spirits and I was discharged pretty quickly. Going home from the hospital empty handed was just another reminder for me of what I had lost. Dimitri drove me home, but we didn't talk. I couldn't even look at him. If I had a choice I would not have gone home. But my body was still healing so I had to stay put.

Our lives continued as if nothing had ever happened. We both went to work, to the gym and to all the meeting that were required. On the outside, we were just two model guardians doing their job. But on the inside, both of us were broken. At home, we lived our separate lives. We didn't talk and we certainly didn't have any physical contact. I blamed Dimitri for choosing me over Adri and for giving Tasha false hope in the first place. I also blamed myself for being too blind to see Tasha's plan and for walking straight into her trap. And most of all, for risking Adri because of my hastiness. I think Dimitri blamed me for that too. And like me, he blamed himself for a lot of things.

Our lives had become just a big and depressing blaming game. Dimitri punished himself by sleeping every night on the couch and me by never making food for two. I punished him by never doing his laundry, just mine and myself by never opening the nursery door. Lissa had thought it would be a good idea to prepare the nursery for Adri. I had never seen the room and I never would. Every time I walked by that door, I would stop for a couple of seconds to take a deep breath before moving on. Because that was the only thing I could do, move on like nothing happened.

Some days were easier than others. I still talked to my friends but mostly on official contexts. Those were the easy days. My friends had accepted my rules for not bringing Adri up and respect that. They tried to keep me busy and talked only about our lives before all of this. It made me feel just a little lighter when I was with them. But with Dimitri, they talked about everything. I guess Dimitri needed that. To my surprise, he bonded with Christian the most. I heard Christians voice quite often when he walked Dimitri home. Sometimes he popped inside and asked if I had talked with Lissa. And the answer was always no. I didn't have anything to say to her. And it didn't help that Lissa had announced her pregnancy almost right after I was discharged from the hospital. I guess she once again jumped to a stupid conclusion that it would be fun if our kids grew up together.

Things between us got only worst when she finally gave birth to a baby boy. Dimitri had of course gone to the hospital to congratulate them. But it took me weeks to go see the kid. I throw up a couple of times on my way to Lissa's house. The idea of a baby made me physically sick. But I still made myself knock on her door.

The kid was cute and looked just like Christian. He had Lissa's green eyes but otherwise, he was a cookie-cutter copy of his father. I think if he had Ozera´s blue eyes I would have thrown up again. They tried to make me hold him but I drew the line there. Dimitri though didn't have any problems with holding other people's kids and he actually smiled down at him. That made me sick to my stomach and my hate for him grow. I know that I would probably die if Dimitri ever left me, but I still resented him. Love and hate. Blame and punish.

Then Lissa dropped the bomb. She wanted me to be his godmother. I out loud laughed and everyone in the room stiffed. "You want me to look after your son when I got my own daughter killed? You want me to help raise your son when I will never see my own daughter walk, talk or laugh? Well fuck you Vasilisa."

I had gotten up from the couch and left. Dimitri spent weeks after that avoiding and judging me but I didn't care. I had spoken the truth. The truth though had distanced me from all of my friends. They had chosen Dimitri´s side and Dimitri had learned to rely on them for support. I, on the other hand, had learned to stand on my own two feet. Slowly I started to realize that I had nothing left at the court. Lissa was still my charge but I was starting to question my loyalty to her. And so were others. I did mostly night shifts where I didn't have to face her. And I still did my job well, so nobody could complain about me. But I knew my time was up.

On the quiet I contacted Abe. He has said that I could call him for anything at any time. So I called him and asked if he was hiring at the moment. As if happens he did have a job for me. I asked him to give me a month to pack and to get my ducks in the row. He agreed and gave me 28 days to decide. I asked him to keep this on the downside until I chose what to do with my broken life.

This was a big decision, so I didn't take the decisions making lightly. I kept wondering around the court and thinking what the life here would be like without me. I spied on my friends and watched as they lived their lives without me. I followed Dimitri and saw how he coped with his sorrow without me. I wasn't surprised of what I saw but still little sad. I had brought this upon myself as a punishment, but it still hurt. As I returned home from my trip I decided that I would take Abe's offer. I picked up the phone and called him but the call went to the voicemail.

Abe didn't call me back that night, so I waited until the next day to call again. But for some reason, I never made the call. I waited for another day. And then another. And another. Abe didn't call me and I think he could sense my indecisiveness. And I guess it tells something about my mental state that in the middle of my phone drama, I totally forgot Adri's birthday. Or I would have if Dimitri had not come home that night totally hammered.

I was sitting on the couch and reading through a report when something hit the door. I hurried to the door and Dimitri almost fell to the floor as I swung the door open. "Dimitri?"

"Shh! Don't wake the dragon!" He laughs and stumbles inside. I take it that I am the evil dragon that he should be avoiding. How nice. But I just sigh and close the door after him. Dimitri hits the couch and falls over its back. I walk closer to see if he is still alive. Yep, still alive, just drunk.

Dimitri tries to get up by leaning against the coffee table, but he sways and ends up back on the floor. "What are you doing drinking in the middle of the week? This is not like you, Dimitri."

He just looks at me gaze wandering until he finally is able to sit up. "It's her first birthday…"

"What now?" At first, I thought I heard him wrong.

"Goddammit, Rose! It's our daughter´s first birthday! The daughter you seem to have completely forgotten! The daughter whose full name you are not willing to tell me!" He yells at me. This is the first time ever that Dimitri yells at me. And then he starts to cry. It broke my heart to see my Russian god crying. Slowly I sat down next to him but gave him room to gain control.

"Why are we doing this to each other? Haven't we suffered enough?" He asks and looks me pleadingly.

"It's not that easy…" I tell him and avoid his gaze by looking at pictures on the wall. Pictures of the time when we were in love and happy.

"I know that. God, I know. But we need to talk! Before we lose each other too!" He tries to take my hand, but I move my hand away at the last second. I feel a wave of guilt. I don't think Dimitri knows about my plans, but he is right. More than he knows. We have drifted apart and reached the breaking point.

"Adriana. I named her Adriana Hope Belikova…" I guess I owed him that much.

Dimitri stays quiet watching the pictures for a while before saying: "Thank you, Rose…"

"Give me." I gesture toward the bottle he brought with him. He just chuckles and hands the bottle over. And for the first time, we actually talk about what happened. Not that we would remember much of it in the morning, but at least we talked.


	26. Chapter 26: A new approach

I know the last chapter was controversial and not all of you liked it. But I promise that those emotions and events were necessary to build up the anger and the resentment for what is to come. Just hold on tight and keep on reading ;)

* * *

RPOV

I admit it was not one of my finest moments. We drank and opened our hearts to each other until we passed out on the living room floor. Adrian had to come and wake me up for work. His all-knowing smile was really annoying me as I quickly changed my clothes and hurried to brush my teeth. Dimitri followed me into the bathroom and joined me by the sink.

"Rose… Can I ask for something?" He asked tentatively.

"Hm?" I just answered concentrating on brushing my teeth but in reality, I was really afraid of facing him after last night. Last night we had been so hammered that we didn´t have any inhibitions. But now we both were sober and had to face the reality. And it scared me. I guess he could sense my tenseness and he slowly placed his hand on the small of my back. That was the first time he had even brushed me after I was discharged from the hospital. It felt kind of awkward but nice at the same time. I gave him a tight smile to encourage him to continue.

"Please come with me to the therapy…" He whispered. I almost choked at my toothbrush. I didn't even know he was seeing a therapist. At first, it angered me to think that he was talking about our life to an outsider but one look at his deflated face made me hold my tongue. He kept his look down as if he know I would flip out. His eyes were tired and didn't hold any hope for his request. But I could see that this was important to him. And I love him. I could swallow my pride for his happiness.

"Okay." I just stated and returned the toothbrush to its rightful face. At first, Dimitri doesn´t even understand what I said but then his face brakes into a most beautiful smile. I can't help but join him. If he can find the strength to smile like that I will do my very best to help him maintain it. He leans down and gives me a light kiss and whispers "Thank you, Roza."

The nickname makes my heart beat with love and my eyes to tear up. He slowly wipes my tears away and places light kisses all over my face. "I am not giving up." He tells me and pulls me closer.

"I love you…" I whisper in return. He laughs voice full of love and happiness.

"I love you too Roza. God, I missed you." I smile up at him and am about to return the words when Adrian coughs from the living room.

"Hurry up!"

I share one more smile with Dimitri before heading to work. The day went on without any troubles and after work, I joined Dimitri at the therapy. And we made it a regular thing after the first session. Thought I made it pretty clear after the first time that we would change the therapist. Some young Moroi chick couldn't possibly understand what it was like being a guardian and what kind of burdens went along with it. Luckily Abe had some contacts and flew a retired Dhampir woman for Russia to hold our therapy sessions. I guess you really can do anything with money and right connections.

Yulia was a really nice lady and as a formed guardian herself, she understood our situation. She helped us to connect again and little by little life didn't seem so bad anymore. It took me weeks thought to actually tell them that I had been about to leave. Dimitri had cried and yelled at me. I guess then it made perfect sense that Dimitri couldn't leave in order to feel better, but I could leave to punish myself more. Now it didn't seem so logical anymore. I had apologized to Dimitri and we both had cried ourselves to sleep that night. But not like you might think. We cried together while holding each other. We were together.

Which bring me to somebody who wasn't here with us. By Yulia´s recommendation, Abe had flown an artist to the court who was able to sketch us a picture of Adriana based on my descriptions. We both had just stared at the finished picture in silence. It was a halting moment and I finally shared everything I could remember about her with Dimitri. After that, we talked a lot about Adri both in therapy and at home and cherished every moment and everything we could remember about her. But the future was the thing we fought the most about. Dimitri was dead set on Adri being alive. I argued that she was long gone since Tasha couldn't even keep a goldfish alive. She had threatened to drop Adri like she was nothing in order to blackmail Dimitri. Dimitri had tried to tell me that Tasha he knew would never hurt Adriana. And I had to remind him that Tasha we both knew had in fact killer dozens of kids and tortured me for fun. Last Friday we had the same fight we had almost every week.

"Adriana is alive!" Dimitri had yelled. He was getting desperate with me.

"No, she is dead. So there is no point going after Tasha." I just tell him turning my back on him and walking to the kitchen.

"How can you say that?! Don´t you want to find Adriana?" He just followed me.

"NO, I DON'T! I do not want to track Tasha down in order to find the body of my baby girl! No thank you!" I finally turn around to scream at him. "You just don't get it! In this case not knowing is better than getting to bury our daughter!"

"You are in denial, Rose! Not knowing what happened to Adriana doesn't make it any less real!" He shook me by my shoulders. "We need to find her."

"No." I inform him for the last time.

"Remember our promise to each other from that trip to the mall?" He asks. Oh, he is playing dirty which is new.

"Don't even go there. Adriana is not a Strigoi." I warn him. I don't think my mental health could handle the thought of our daughter being a dirty and revolting Strigoi. I don't even think they can turn a baby.

"Of course not. But you promised to free my soul if I was turned. And you did, Rose. I think we owe that to Adriana too. To give her the closer too." He tries to persuade me.

"I thought you believed that Adriana was still alive." I just retort back.

"I do and I will find her and bring her home one way or another. But you need a different manner of an approach. "He strokes my hair. "Please, Rose. Do this for me and for Adriana."

"I just don't want to find her corpse in some abandoned house full of bottles, graffiti, and drugs. She deserved so much better." I whisper and those stupid tears emerge again. "If we don't look for her, she lives forever in our memories, Dimitri."

"She will in any case. She is our daughter. A closer won't wipe her away." He kisses my forehead and holds me close. I guess he is technically right but the thought of learning about her horrible life and gruesome death makes me want to lock myself in the bathroom for the rest of my life. What kind of mother would want to face that kind of truth?

"Tasha had her revenge. I think it's time for us to have ours." Dimitri whispers. And that's it. That's the spark I needed. Tasha had tortured me to a blink of madness and taken my baby away from me. I genuinely don't believe that Adriana is still alive, but I can revenge for her. It pointless to blame ourselves for what happened. It´s Tasha's fault.

"Let´s do it." I tell him and lean back to see his face. "Let´s make her pay."

For almost a year we worked our asses off. We upped our training and instead of protecting a charge we specialized at killing the opponent. Abe provided us with a lot of different kind of weapons that we trained to master. We even took some trips around the States to study under some specialist and honed our skills of combat to the teeth. Every second that we weren´t training we were working, and we saved every penny that we could in order to get a moderate nest egg. Lissa and Adrian helped us out too. Lissa didn't hold a grudge out for too long and helped us out with working schedules as best as she could. Adrian and Abe had kept wheels turning while Dimitri and I had been at each other throats and they already had a working spy network ready at hands. Adrian and Lissa joined forces in charming some protections for us and finally little after Adri´s second birthday we took a temporally leave and headed back to Turkey to hunt some Strigois.


	27. Chapter 27: The Ozera

RPOV

Abe and Adrian gave us a ride to the airport. If you ask me, Abe was probably feeling a bit sentimental and wanted to give us some last minute advises. We had our back bags ready and our gazes were already on the plane when Abe stepped in front of me and held me by the shoulder.

"Kizim, a word, please."

"Sure, what's up, Old man?"

"This plane is not taking you two to Ankara as planned." He tells me dead serious and I have to take a look at Adrian's smug smile to understand what he is saying.

"What! Why?"

"The time for solo missions is over, Kiz. I have someone waiting for you two at the destination." He just smiles as smugly as Adrian.

"Aha, and where would that be?" I give Adrian a dirty look over Abe's shoulder. He was in this the whole time.

"Istanbul, of course." Abe laughs. "The city of unification."

"Really crafty." I haft to give him some credits. "The city that unites Europe and Asia. I take it that you want us to co-operate with someone?"

"Well, yes. So be a good girl and don´t waste this opportunity. God knows I have paid a very high price for it." Abe gives me a few pats on the shoulder before turning me towards to plane. "And Dimitri, you will look after Rose even if she for some ungodly reasons decides to run off on her own? At least two of you will stick together?"

"Yes, sir." Dimitri smiles and follows me.

"Have fun!" Adrian calls out and waves at us. I give him one more dirty look for keeping secrets from me before boarding the plane. And in no time, we are already up in the air and heading towards Istanbul. The City of Unification, right. Typical Abe to come up with such a name. Makes me wonder though what is waiting for us. Istanbul is basically Abe´s playground so that could be anything. But what could make him pay highly for his preparation?

"Do you think we should play nice and accept whatever Abe has planned for us?" I ask Dimitri voicing my concerns.

"Couldn´t hurt, right? You said Adrian and Abe had some kind of network going on already, so this might be it." Dimitri wonders too.

"They won´t accept our methods or goals if they have anything to do with Moroi world." I point out.

"Whatever Abe has arranged, I don't think it is legal or even public knowledge." Dimitri laughs and holds my hand.

"I guess you´re right. We just have to wait and see. But if they become a threat, we will leave, right?" I want to check.

"Agreed." Dimitri nods and leans back to get a glimpse of sleep before we start our hunt.

The flight to Istanbul literally flies past us and I can´t seem to be able to relax. Adrian and Abe left too many questions unanswered and my mind is already reeling with possibilities. I just hope that this something will give us a direction to follow while hunting Tasha. Right now, we don't have any leads to follow so this might be our break.

Slowly we exit the plane and heal to collect our bags. I keep watching my surrounding as a good guardian should, but for some reasons, I am more concerned about other people that I am about Strigois. Turn out though that I had nothing to be anxious about since a chauffeur is standing by the exit holding a board stating "Belikov." We hand our bags to the chauffeur who seems to be only speaking Turkish and follow him to a car. My anxiety spikes up again as the driver turns the car to the interstate without speaking a word to us. I exchange a masked glance with Dimitri and try to keep an open mind since Abe so kindly asked us to go along with this.

In no time we arrive to the city and zigzag between old buildings and the narrow streets. I think this man is just taking us to be butchered somewhere but Dimitri seems relaxed enough. The car finally stops in front of a newer building between the old and deteriorated houses. The area seems to be almost abandoned and therefore run down but this white building sticks out like a sore thumb. The front door seems sturdy and firm but there are quite a few fall-to-fall windows next and over it. The house goes on about three floors and seems to be too neat and industrial to this location.

Nevertheless, we head to the door and ring the bell. At first, there is no sound coming from the doorbell or the house but then the front door flies open. In front of us stands a Dhampir man in his dressing gown holding a cup of coffee. He seems to be in his 30s but looks pretty tired and worn. He wears big glasses and his dark brown hair is tangled all over the place. He starts to yell at us in Turkish and tries to shut the door. Dimitri gets his foot in the door and I step forward.

"The Zmey send us."

"Well, why didn't you say so!" He exclaims and loses the glasses. "Come in, come in!" He opens the door for us and we enter a pretty sleek and empty white entrance hall. There is a staircase going up near the door and hallway that leads further into the house. "So you are Rosemarie and Dimitri?"

"Just Rose." I correct him while looking around. As I turn back around I´m in for a surprise. The man has fixed his hair and ditched the gown. He actually looks pretty decent and ripped! His biceps could compete with Dimitris´!

"My name is Kerem." He shakes both of our hands. "And welcome to the Vipers Nest."

"A what now?" I laugh. Abe did not name this place after himself! Kerem just smiles and leads us to a courtyard where a woman is waiting for us. The woman has brown-green eyes and wavy light brown hair that reaches her mid back. Her hair makes me a bit self-conscious about my hideous hair. After Tasha's barbering, my hair grew back pretty well, but of course, it would take time to grow long. Right now, my hair resembled a bob and let me tell you that a bob with as thick hair as mine does not look good. So, most of the time I kept it tied back like Dimitri. But this woman makes me feel a bang of longing and envy.

"Intruders?" She asks in English. Even her voice sounds good and she could be a model if she wasn´t a Dhampir.

"No, this is the Rose and Dimitri." Kerem laughs and introduces us. "This is Vira." We shake her hand too and she seems pleased that we are finally here. Not that we just landed or anything.

"Shall we head down? Hamit is waiting for us." She asks eagerly. Kerem nods and we have no choice but to follow them across the courtyard. I have no idea what is going on or who these people are, but I just play along. Probably walking to my own death. They lead us to an elevator which against my expectations takes us underground instead of up. I lean closer to Dimitri just in case we are attacked. Dimitri discreetly takes my hand and I can sense that he too is ready for everything. The doors of the elevator open slowly, and our jaws hit the floor.

In front of us is a massive underground cave. There is no way that room this big could fit under the house that we just saw, so it has to continue under the neighborhood. We exit the elevator and find ourselves standing on top a platform most likely reserved for surveillance and intelligence. There are a few Morois sitting there in front of their computers and I think one of them is out therapist Yulia! Below the platform is different sections of training facilities and we can see a few fights going on. The most disturbing thing is that it seems like Morois are fighting against at least two Dhampirs. And they are using magic.

"What is this place?" I can't help to wonder out loud.

"This, dear Rose, is the Vipers Nest." A man´s voice tells us. We turn to face a new Dhampir man who seems to be the oldest one here. His black hair is army short and like Kerem, he seems very fit despite his age. His is wearing sweatpants and a black t-shirt which showcases his numerous scars. "And my name is Hamit."

"Nice to meet you." Dimitri is the one to get over the shock first and greets the man.

"Likewise." Hamit smiles at us. "You must have a lot of questions."

"Yeah… The Zmey told us to meet you and that you might be able to help us tracking a Moroi down." I step forward and reveal my cards. There is no point of hiding our agendas seeing exactly what they do here.

"Yes, I think we can help you." Hamit nods smiling. "But Ibrahim should visit us himself more often!"

"Abe doesn´t run this place?" I ask confused. I automatically thought that the name referred to Abe.

"No, he is one of our beneficial and helps to fund some of our projects but he is not our founder." Hamit tells us amused.

"The who?" Dimitri asks before I can.

"The Queens consort. Lord Christian Ozera." Okay, what is going on here?!

"Fire boy? You got to be kidding me!" I exclaim. This doesn't make any sense. "Why would he do such a thing?!"

"Well if I remember correct, it was about keeping promises and taking responsibility for his bloodline." Hamit laughs at my shocked face.

"So Christian Ozera founded this organization in order to do what?" Dimitri seems as confused as I am.

"Officially we Dhampirs are here just to protect our charges. Our charges on other hand are doing some intensive intelligence gathering in order to provide the court with real-time information about Strigois movement." Hamit winks at us.

"So Lissa doesn´t know about this?" I wonder.

"Well, the Queen does sign the charges and gave us a place to operate from. Apparently, Abe is now in favor of the Queen and as he recommended this place, Queen accepted. But officially she doesn´t know we exist." Hamit lead as to take a closer look at the training areas.

"Lord Ozera doesn't have political burdens like Queen, so he can basically do whatever he wants." Dimitri laughs a bit as we pass some fire users.

"But the council would wonder if he was too involved with this." I point out.

"Well, Lord Ozera has appointed Lord Adrian Ivashkov to take care of our political connections and ministration." Hamit informs us. Of course. That explains the smug look he was giving us at the airport. He knew exactly where we were going and what we would face. Ain´t that lovely.

I am just about to ask about Adrian´s involvement of keeping all of this under the raider from the council when I spot a familiar face. "Abby Badica?!"

Abby turns around and smiles brightly at us. She waves like crazy before leaving the ring behind and joins us. "Hey, Rose!"

"What are you doing in here?!" I exclaim as I give her a brief hug.

"Well, after everything with Mana and the caves I was really afraid and scared. I had no idea that life could be so harsh and unforgiving! But then I was teamed up with Derek over there." She points at one of the Dhampirs. "He taught me to take care and defend myself just in case he was killed in action. I didn't like it but I did my best. After few years we grew really close and you know." She giggles and avoids my gaze.

"Yeah, I know." I just laugh. Yeah, I know.

"Then Lord Ivashkov contacted us and asked if we liked to join this team! And we accepted!" She tells us happily. She really is as happy and talkative as I remembered.

"Well, it good to see you all well and happy." I just smile. Abby returns the smile and heads back to her training.

"Small world..." I just tell Dimitri as I watch her back.

"The world is really changing." Dimitri agrees.

"And Strigois with it." Hamit adds taking a deep breath.

"How so?" Dimitri asks as we head back to the platform.

"Natasha Ozera had a more significant impact on our world that she probably intended." Hamit tells us and takes a seat. "The old and powerful Strigois have understood the benefits of organization and united around the big cities. They lure new Strigois in and are trying to form a hierarchical nest for them to rule."

"That´s…. bad…" There isn´t much you can say to that. Organized groups of Strigois could wipe us out in a month.

"That is why this movement is so critical. Our people are doing an excellent job around the world and we are even co-operation with Alchemist." I look around the platform and try to guess how long these Morois have been here. "The council seems reluctant to address this threat, but we have to do something."

"So you train people and send them around the world to spread the knowledge and know-how?" Dimitri is interested in this.

"We have to. Only that way we can protect our people." He nods seriously.

"What are Alchemist doing?" I have to ask.

"They have opened their laboratories for us." Hamit seems pleased with my question. "Weapons, medicines, torture devices…"

"Medicines?" That peaks my interest.

"A vaccine against Strigoi´s blood." Hamit smiles. "If captured, the death is a better option than awakening when you know as much as we do. The vaccine activated when in contact with Stirgoi blood and starts to destroy the body inside out." That really is ground-breaking news. That would mean that no Morois or Dhampir could be turned against their will. And to my knowledge, Strigois can't breed. They could die out!

"What about those who have already been turned against their will?" Dimitri asks pained. I can understand his concern and empathy towards those poor souls.

"Actually, we have made some progress developing a way to helping the Spirit users to turn the Strigoi back to living creatures." Hamit tells proudly. "That has also led some young and unwillingly turned Strigois to contact us. They have agreed to give us information about the nests if we turn them back."

"This is completely insane." I tell them both. All of this makes my head spin!

"I know it´s a lot to take in." Hamit smiles and rises from his chair. "I´ll show you to your room and tomorrow we will get to work."


	28. Chapter 28: Calling home

RPOV

After we had rested and settled in, we started to mingle. Hamit had given us the privilege of assembling our own team as we liked so we decided to assess the people who had gathered to the Vipers Nest. At first, we were apprehensive about bringing any Moroi with us but as we watched them train with guardians, it became obvious that we needed a fire user into our team. We found a few good ones who seemed to be really eager to go hunting, but in the end, we chose this Greek guy named Tryfon. He had been there the longest and therefore had the most experience when it got to facing Strigois. And of course, he came with his guardian Ermis, who had already gained some experience in fighting alongside Morois. Kerem followed us around like a lost puppy so we had to count him in. Though during these few days Vira had already gotten on my nerves with her attitude so she was out. But for a sake of the balance, we included Dafina and Jaga to our team. Those ladies scared the living shit out of me with their skill to waver earth and axe. They even looked like a pair of Amazons!

With our international team assembled, we started to train. If we were to go hunting on our own, we needed a strong team that was capable of having each other's backs and doing some pretty intensive collaboration. We needed to be united like Abe has said. It took some time to get us coordinated and in sync but in a matter of two weeks we were ready. Hamit gave us a map where Yulia had so kindly marked down places in Istanbul where Strigois liked to hang out. Our mission was to blend in as well as we could, protect the civilians and capture a few Strigois from there and there. We wanted to advance in our small group so we wouldn't rise too much suspicious and tip the Strigois off.

Usually, we hunted during weekends because that was when most people and therefor Strigois were out. Everything was going great, well except that most of the Strigois that we interrogated didn't have a clue who Natasha Ozera was. Either they were playing dumb or Tasha had gone underground. So we had to change our tactics. Hanging around clubs and restaurants wasn´t that efficient so we started actively searching for Strigois. We would map out their nest and form a trap near their entrances. Usually, that included me acting helplessly drunk or lost and asking for directions. They didn't take me as a threat because of my gender and height which was their mistake. We usually killed the whole nest but bought one Strigoi back with us to the Vipers Nest. There some of us would use rather questionable methods to distract information from them. I say, Alchemists were just as bad and evil as the rest of us. They had come up with such a range of killing and torturing methods on Strigois that it surprised even me. After my experiences, I didn´t want to be present for most of the interrogations but oh boy. Quicksilver poured into Strigois ear did not look pretty.

At first, Strigois came to our waiting arms but little by little the word got out and they even ran away from us. Can you imagine! Strigois fleeing from the streets at the sight of us. We even earned a new nickname which was revealed to us during one of the interrogations. They called us the Silver Viper. It made me laugh but Hamit was pleased.

But no matter what they called us, Strigois didn´t seem to have any ideas about Tasha. It frustrated me. So we started to ask questions about Lev and the rest of Tasha´s little party. Turns out, most of them were killed during other´s attack to free me but some had escaped like Tasha. Those were relatively easy to find and follow almost up to the Georgian border. They were trying to flee to Russia but we got them before that. Turns out most of them were not in contact with Tasha anymore. Some even blamed Tasha for ruining their lives. But they were able to tell us that Tasha had turned into a Strigoi about a year ago.

"That´s it then." I just sigh and head back towards our room.

"What do you mean?" Dimitri asks following me and leaving Kerem with the last Strigoi.

"There is no way a Strigoi Tasha would be able to keep a Dhampir baby alive." I just tell him without turning around.

"We have come too far to give up now, Rose." He stops me by taking a hold of my wrist. I just sigh again and turn to face him.

"I´m just loosing the last of our hope." I tell him tired. "We have been hunting for months now and we still got nothing."

"I know but this is the first lead we have since we got here. Now we know that we are looking for a Strigoi and not a Moroi. And a Strigoi with Dhampir baby can´t be that common sight. Someone ought to have seen something." Dimitri tries to motivate me.

"I think we need to call Abe." I just nod, and we hurry back to our room. In no time we are sitting in front of the computer and giving Abe some updates on our progress via video call. He seemed to be in a hurry so we didn´t hold him for too long.

"Should we call home too?" I ask after Abe disconnected. "We really haven´t talked to Lissa or anyone in a long time. And I bet that Fire Boy would like some updates too."

"Wouldn´t hurt." Dimitri agrees and sits back in front of the screen with me. It takes Lissa few moments to connect.

"Rose?! It´s so good to hear from you!" Lissa exclaims happily. "Wait, I´ll get Christian too. Honey!" I just laugh as Lissa orders him around. But my smile falters a little as Chris joins Lissa with their son. And oh my god, Andrei has grown so much. I want to be happy for Lissa but it just makes my heart bleed to see Andrei growing and smiling at us. I have to lower my chin to hide the grimace. Dimitri notices my discomfort and takes my hand to comfort me. I take a deep breath before returning their smile.

"Hey! How is my favorite nephew doing?"

"He is just fine!" Lissa laughs and makes Andrei giggle for us. "And thank you for the clothes you sent!"

Even though I might still not be hundred percent okay with Andrei, I still took a role of a distant aunt. And that included me and Dimitri sending stuff for him from Turkey. "Good, he looks good in green."

"It´s the eyes." Lissa smiles and kisses the top of Andrei's head. "How is the hunt going?"

"Well…" I hesitate and turn my gaze to Christian. "We just find out that Tasha turned Strigoi about a year ago…"

"Oh…" Is all he can say. He seems little sad about the news but takes a deep breath and collects himself pretty fast. Guess he was expecting something like this. "Are you close to finding her?"

"Not right now. She has probably gone underground but we are spreading the word about a Strigoi Tasha with Adri. Hopefully, someone will catch a glimpse of them." I tell them sharing Christian´s sadness.

"Oh honey, you will get her." Lissa is always so optimistic and tries to cheer me up.

"Mm, let's see." I just tell them. "Any big news about Strigois?"

"I think you´d know about those news faster than us." Chris laughs.

"Yeah, thank you for that!" I mess with him a little.

"You're welcome!" He just smiles and takes Andrei when he gets tired of us just talking.

"So… Everything going okay?" I ask Lissa when I get her alone. Dimitri gets the hint and head to the shower.

"I just miss you." Lissa tells me truthfully. "I miss having a girlfriend around. There is so much that I would like to talk about with you. About men, politics, dresses, kids, interior decoration…" She starts to rumble so I just jump in.

"I get it, Lis!" I laugh. "I miss us too."

"But Adriana is more important than us." Lissa smiles. She understands our need to find Tasha and had accepted that. And I will forever love her for that.

"Yep." I tell her with a small smile.

"Rose…" She hesitates.

"Just spill it out." I tell her.

"I´m pregnant again…" She tells me tentatively. I freeze for a second. I mean, we had had some physical contact with Dimitri, but I never thought about having more kids until we get this hunt done. But of course Lissa has her own life and she had always talked about having more than one kid. "Rose?"

"Yeah, sorry… That´s just… It´s great." I tell her but I think she can see the tears in my eyes.

"You are already the best aunt that Andrei could have asked for. I know, without a doubt, that you will be a great godmother to this child." I can practically see the proudness and happiness radiating from her. I would hate to burst her bubble, so I just get my shit together and smile at her.

"You really think so?" I ask.

"I know so." She laughs.

"Fine, when are you due? When do we have to make a trip back home?" I just laugh at her shocked face and I have to cover my ears as she starts to scream. Christian hurries back looking ready to fight whatever have unsettled Lissa.

"Relax, Fire boy!" I laugh as Lissa starts to cry and tries to hug the screen.

"You have no idea Rose what this means to me! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She wails looking really un-Queen like.

"Hormones?" I ask Christ smiling.

"Yep." He just laughs and hugs Lissa. "So we will be seeing you around Christmas?"

"Sure." I nod. "Wouldn´t miss it in the world."

We exchange few more world before disconnecting. I lean back on the office chair and cover my face with my hands. I can´t help but scream a little. Not only is Lissa having another kid, now we have a deadline to think about. But deep down I know that I am really happy for them and maybe little by little my soul is healing. Maybe being a godmother would be such a bad thing. It just gives me one more reason to get this hunt done and over with and Tasha dead in the ground.


	29. Chapter 29: Which one?

RPOV

Strigois had moved further and further away from our nest and they clearly were finally taking us as a real threat. We had to follow them all the way to the Georgian border where we currently were. We had just arrived at our hotel, dumped our stuff in the rooms and now we had gathered to Kerems room to go over the plan for one last time.

"I think it would be wise if we moved in pairs. The Strigois are not taking any changes by now and will most likely be hunting in groups." Dimitri states while examining the map.

"I agree. No-one goes anywhere alone." Tryfon nods.

"Then I need someone to go with me." I remark. Like usually, I was picked as bait for our plan.

"I will go." Dafina, the Dhampir one of Amazons volunteers.

"I think the Strigois will know it's a trap the moment they see your gorgeous self!" Kerem laughs and winks at Dafina which earns an eye-roll from Jaga.

"Well, then you should go." Jaga shoots back making us all laugh. Kerem is the shortest of our gang excluding me and he had had a need to compensate that with a macho attitude and a big mouth. So Jagas remark makes Kerem blush like a girl.

"It's settled then. Kerem will go with Rose and have her back." Dimitri nods and gives Kerem a stern look. That look clearly shows exactly what he would do to Kerem if he messed this up. Kerem keeps his objections to himself and just nods. I guess Dimitri looks really intimidating standing there between the Amazons and out-standing even them! But damn Dimitri looks good standing in the middle of those two freakishly tall women. In fact, they all look great standing there with their weapons and gear ready, like three war angels ready for battle. I share a smile with Dimitri before turning towards Ermis.

"We will go in too and keep an eye on the exits." Ermis promises and Tryfon joins him by the window.

"I´ll go with you. It would be suspicious if Tryfon has only one guardian." Dafina ads. If Dafina wasn´t a Dhampir, she and Jaga could be identical twins. Not like I would question their parentage, but wow they looked like sisters. Dafina even matched Jaga with her hight and they both had the same skin tone, light brown hair and blue eyes.

"We will wait in the car in case something happens and we need a quick getaway." Dimitri nods and takes the keys from Jaga.

"All settled then." I nod and head to the door. Dimitri stops me before I can follow Tryfon outside.

"You´ll be careful right?" He whispers holding me close and leaning down.

"Always." I whisper back and share a small kiss with him. "We got this."

"Always." He smiles at me before letting me go.

"C´mon lovebirds!" Kerem insists already by the car. Dimitri just sighs and unlocks the door for him.

"Hang in there Comrade." I laugh and hurry to the car.

After a short drive, we arrive at the bar that we had mapped out as a possible place for Strigois. From outside the place seems to be pretty clear from Strigois but you can never know what is waiting inside. I take a hold of Kerems arm, which he likes little too much, and stumble toward the door. The bouncers don't give us too hard of a time and after a little bribe, we enter a dimly lit bar. Music is already bounding and the dance floor is flooded with smoke. Humans grind against each other and LED lights illuminate the dancefloor. We head straight to the bar and order few drinks as a prop.

"You´re in?" Dimitri asks through our earpiece.

"Super!" I laugh keeping the act going but still answering to Dimitri. Kerem keeps laughing at my drunken act which makes me laugh even more. In no time we are both laughing at nothing but the situation. I guess the suspension makes us little nervous. I wipe my tears as I take a better look at the humans. It not too hard to notice that some of them look rather pale and angry. One male Strigoi keeps giving me the death glare across the dancefloor and tries to keep his companion in place. The female looks at me like she's ready to rip my head off.

"I think our cover is blown!" I laugh at Kerem trying not to look at the Strigois. "Should we keep going?"

"Yeah!" Kerem laughs and pulls me closer. "Let them think we are drunk and on leave! Maybe they will be stupid enough to come after us!"

"Doubt that!" I yell over the music and start pulling him to the dancefloor. It takes us a few moment to navicade through the sweat and drunken dancers but finally we make our way to the center of the dancefloor. I pull Kerem closer but keep watching our surroundings over his shoulder. And it's not looking too good. The female Strigois is circling us and moving to block the exit. The male is accompanied by another male Strigoi and they are slowly making their way towards us. The dancefloor is a step lower than the bar area and it feels like three lions are trapping us down here. "Shit…" I just whisper.

"Would they attack us here out in the open?" Kerem whispers to my ear and both of us has sobered up pretty quickly.

"I would..." I start to get really worried. I notice Ermis and Tryfon enter the bar but Strigois are closer to us than they are. I slowly reach my arm under Kerems jacket where I know he keeps his spare stake. I feel the silver against my fingertips and slowly get a grip around the halt. I turn my gaze towards the first male Strigoi ready to attack if he takes even a step closer. Kerem is tense and his gaze is at the another male Strigoi. I just hope that we can deal with those two quickly and Ermis and Tryfon take care of the female. I exhale loudly and am about to pull my hand back when a voice stops me.

"I know the smell of that blood anywhere." I hear a whisper behind me. My heart skips a beat. That voice. I almost missed it because of the music but I know that voice.

"Lev.." I almost choke at that name and whip my head around. There he stands smiling at me. He is closer to me than the female Strigoi and only a single couple of dancers separate us. But my shock lasts only second. I grab Kerems spare stake, push the couple out of my way and attack. Kerem seems confused about my behavior but is quickly forced to defend himself against the two male Stigois.

I hate to leave Kerem alone against them but Lev is a bigger threat than them. So I go after Lev but he just keeps backing away. "Don't you run away from me!" I demand. The female Strigoi advances to me before I reach Lev.

"Going somewhere, sugar?" She asks snickering.

"Out of my way!" I tell her and quickly jab her at her stroat. Bet that she didn't see that one coming. Even though Strigois doesn't need air to live, I bet that hurt pretty badly. She bends over gasping for air as a reflex. I use my opening and stake her right throught the heart. With one quick move, I pull my stake from her rib cage, grab hold of her hair and toss her out of my way.

I keep following Lev as Ermis hurries past me to help Kerem. I keep my steady gaze at Lev and push screaming people out of my way. He is not getting away. Lev seems amused of my reaction and clearly gives me time to follow him. He could have escaped the moment I killed the female but he seems to be toying with me.

My luck lasted only so long as some poor bastard runs straight at my back and I have to break my eye contact with Lev not to fall on my face. As soon as I can, I lift my gaze back up only to see Lev running. "Shit!" I yell going after him.

He runs out of the bar and to the right towards the alley. I make my legs run even faster than normally and thank once again Dimitri for still insisting on us running our morning runs even when on a mission. Thinking about Dimitri, I activate the tracking mode on my ear piece. After last time, Abe insisted us all wearing tracking devideces so they should be able to detect that I have left the bar and am on a pursuit.

Lev tries to be clever and lose me by climing over all kind of fences and obstacles. But I am in the shape of my life and am able to keep up with him. It only occurs to me after about ten minutes that he probably is not trying to get away from me but to wear me down and make me lost. Because right now I start to slow down and I have absolutely no idea where we are. Lev keeps glancing over his shoulder for me and slows down as I do.

"Where is she?!" I yell at him after he jumps effortlessly over a dith separating us. I feel reluctant to follow him so I take my time. He observed my heavy breathing and thunderous look before answering.

"Which one?"

"What do you mean which one?! Tasha of c…." I yell back at him before fully understanding what he is telling me. I mean, who else I would be talking about if not Tasha. It´s not like he would know where Adri is, right? His smile gets even bigger before he starts running again.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" I yell again feeling the panic take hold of me. He might know were Adri is, but that does me no good is I can´t catch him. "LEV!"

In my desperation, I waste seconds by pulling my gun up and by trying to shoot him with silver bullets. Of curse, he is able to dodge them and keeps on running. I run after him but shooting while running is impossible. Doesn´t stop me from trying thought. So I shoot, yell and run after him. He gets hit by one of the bullet to the leg but still keep running. He doesn´t even look at me as he just keeps going.

Pretty quickly I see why. There is a car waiting for him at the end of the street. "NO!" I yell pushing my legs beyond the breaking point. I feel my muscles screaming for mercy but I just keep going. I almost trip over my own legs because of fatigue. In the end, I just have to stop and take a stand. I try to shoot Lev on the back, burst the tiers of the car or kill the Strigoi driving the car but Lev still makes is to the car and it´s speeds away.

"For fucks sake!" I yell throwing my gun away since it was totally useless. I start to pull my hair in anger and thank God I moved my hair out of my sight since a car almost runs over me. I have just enough time to jump back. I almost start to yell at the driver but seeing it´s Dimitri sitting behind the wheel I hold my tongue.

"Get in!" Jaga urges from the back seat. They don't have to tell me twice as I jump in and we speed after Lev.


	30. Chapter 30: Teamwork

RPOV

"Step on it!" I demand taking hold of the door handle as Dimitri speeds after Lev. He is not getting away and Dimitri is making sure of that! Dimitri has always been the safe and reliable driver but now that all is out of the window. Now we are speeding after two Strigois in the middle of nowhere and without a single idea of speed limits. The houses are far behind us and we are having a raze in the rural area of the town. They are clearly heading toward the border and we cannot let that happen.

"Jaga, do something!" I scream as the car takes quite a leap in the air while we speed through the hillside.

"What do you want me to do?!" She asks holding the car seat with her teeth and nails.

"Use your element!" I yell at her.

"My element is air!" She tells us exasperating.

"Can you slow down their car with air resistance?!" Dimitri asks without taking his eyes away from the road. Good choice if you ask me seeing that minor errors with this speed would lead to our immediate death.

"I can try!" Jaga promises and leans forward as much as she can. She then reaches her hand between the seats and almost like coaxes the car with her fingers. The car squeals in protest but slowly starts to slow down. We speed to drive beside them but I know that Jaga can´t keep the magic up for too long.

I lean forward and quickly search the glove compartment for an extra gun. I make sure it´s filled with silver bullet infused with magic before opening the window and taking a shot at the driver. Lev turns to look at me with anger but his anger is quickly replaced with confusion. His expression makes me wonder what he is looking at.

"Did you get him?" Dimitri asks turning to look at me for a second.

"Almost." I promise and start to shoot again. The Strigoi starts to evade my bullets. Lev is screaming at him clearly not to but their car hits our from the side and makes Dimitri almost lose the control of the car. Lev seems worried about us and then it hits me. He has never officially met Dimitri but he clearly recognizes him. Now that I think about it, I might not have mentioned their relation to Dimitri… And I am not about to. Dimitri would only flip out and hesitate.

"Son of…!" I start as the driver hits us again. This time he did it on purpose. He is trying to make us drive off the road. "Hit him back!"

"Don´t!" Jaga begs and seems a little bit green from all the hits that we are taking.

"Do it! Tap the rear end and make their car flip!" I command as I see a chain-link fence in front of us. We are almost at the border and I doubt the Strigois would hesitate to drive right throw it. The only problem is that we can't do that since it would lead to an international affront. If they reach Georgia, we cannot follow them.

"You will kill us as well!" Jaga cries.

"Well, you flip their car then! Use your magic, Jaga!" I yell as they hit us again. Dimitri almost hits the threes at the side of the road but is able to straighten the car at the last second. Jaga reaches her hand in between us again and with a single swift wrist movement is able to flip their car upside down. Dimitri has to hit the breaks so that we don't hit their spinning car which slides forwards without control. They hit the fence and almost knock it down. Thank God we haven't reached any checkpoint because the impact makes the whole fence to resonate and waver.

Dimitri skillfully parks our car at a good distance from the wreck and in no time all of us are out of the car and advancing theirs with our stakes ready. Lev kicks his side of the door away and quickly get on his feet. He keeps his gaze at Dimitri and Dimitri takes that as an invitation to attack.

"Dimitri!" I try to yell after him but in vain. Dimitri reached Lev quickly and they start their deathly dance. Lev is clearly holding back as he studies Dimitri. But Dimitri keeps his cool and studies Lev´s defense-skills back. Little by little Lev seems to slow down and before I can yell Dimitri not to fall for it, he speeds back up and is able to flip Dimitri to the ground. "Lev, no!" I yell as he picks Dimitri back up and takes a choke hold of his neck.

"Let him go!" I demand and attack them both before Lev can do anything else. We both had the change to get the vaccine that start´s to kill the host the minute it comes in contact with Strigoi blood but I am not taking any changes. We both talked about the change of us being turned and we both decided that the death would be a better option. We know that Strigois can be restored back but the damage stat we could do with our skills and knowledge would be too lethal. Dimitri sees me coming and gives me a jumping platform with his hands. I use his and mines strength to jump right past Dimitri and attack Lev´s head. I stab my stake right through his right eye and he has to let go of Dimitri to prevent me from killing him. He screams in agony and throws me right off his back. I land near Dimitri and help him up.

Lev screams at me in Russia holding his eye and by Dimitri´s look, it's nothing too flattering. "Answer my question!" I demand the stake ready.

"You will never find them." Lev tells us snearing. He takes a last glance at Dimitri before making a run for it. We both dash after him but clearly a Strigoi can outrun us. Dimitri is ahead of me with his long legs but he stops as Lev uses the car wrecked to launch himself over the fence. I am about to follow right after him as Dimitri stops me. He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me to stop.

"Let me go!" I yell. "I will catch him!"

"You cannot!" Dimitri tells me but he is clearly as angry about our defeat as I am.

"GODDAMMIT!" I yell as I push Dimitris hands away. "LEV! YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY! WE WILL COME AFTER YOU! YOU JUST WAIT!" I yell after him and continue yelling until his form disappears into the woods.

"Hey, guys…" Jaga slowly says from the car. We both turn our thunderous gazes at her. She just points at Lev´s car. "The other Strigoi is still in there. I think his neck is broken."

We slowly move towards their inverted car and lean down to take a look at the driver. His neck is clearly at an odd angle which is why he hasn't escaped yet. Otherwise, he seems to be okay. Light blond hair and eyes red as blood. He is clearly a newer Strigoi just doing as the older ones command.

"Is he dead?" Jaga asks skeptic. She keeps her distance from Strigoi but has her hands ready to defend herself.

"I think he will come around eventually. Strigois won´t die from something like that." I remark.

"Well, we have a lead after all." Dimitri nods and pulls the Strigoi from under the car to take home with us.

"This should be fun." I agree as we head back to our car. I watch as Dimitri shoves the body to the trunk before we start to head back to the Vipers Nest.


	31. Chapter 31: High demand

RPOV

Oh, the Strigoi was a screamer. And as our luck was, he screamed in English. He screamed, he begged and he threatened us. He reminded me why exactly I didn't want to take part in interrogations. I could so easily see myself sitting in that chair and begging for my own life to end. But this was an interrogation that I still didn't want to miss out off. So I just bit the bullet and stood my ground.

"Tell us where you met Lev, Ethan." Dimitri commanded and held the quicksilver ready.

"I can't!" Ethan the Strigoi wailed.

"TELL US!" Ermis screams back.

"NO!" Ethan wails again and turns his head from side to side in desperation.

"Let me try something." Tryfon steps forward and advances the Strigoi. Dimitri and Ermis give him the way but still stay close enough to help if something should go wrong. "Look at me." Tryfon orders and leans down to look at the Strigoi. The Strigoi keeps on moving so Dimitri grabs a hold of his jaw and makes him look at Tryfon.

"I want you to tell us everything you know about Lev the Strigoi." Tryfon tells him nice and slowly. I can practically feel the compulsion takin its hold on Ethan. Tryfon´s voice gets soft and almost lulls me into false sleep. I haft to discreetly pinch myself for not starting to sing all of my secrets about Lev.

The Strigoi crawls and tries to fight the compulsion too. It takes Tryfon a two more tries to actually compel him. But the results are surprising.

"I cannot tell you anything about Lev. He is an Ancient and you are forbidden to tell anything about the leaders." Ethan tells us with a monotone voice and a faraway look on his face. This makes us all raise our brows. It seems that Strigois had compelled their own soldiers no to give anything away.

"Well, this is new." Kerem is the first to break the silence.

"What about Natasha Ozera?" I step forward and ask. Ethan turns slowly his gaze at me.

"What about her?" He asks.

" She is not an Ancient. Do you know her? Do you know where she is?" I asked stopping in front of him. Since I am not a Moroi the compulsion starts to wear off but his gaze stays on me. Ethan keeps evaluating me with his gaze. He takes my genre and height lightly as Strigois before him. But little by little his gaze hardens. He takes in all of my scars, my battle wounds, weapons and my stand that tells him not to fuck with me.

"Yeah, I know her… Well, I have met her a few times with Lev…" He tells us after a moment of silence.

"And?" Dimitri asks.

"What's in it for me..?" He asks almost quietly.

"Excuse me?" I almost laugh. He can't be negotiating with us. He is our hostage!

"I know you… "Ethan tells slowly and keeps his eyes on me. "I have heard stories about you and your husband. You can turn a Strigoi back…"

"Only a Moroi with a gift of Spirits can turn a Strigoi back." I tell him.

"I know...But you have a lot of friends with the gift of Spirit…" Ethan lowers his head and it looks almost like he is bowing in front of me or showing his submission. I frown.

"And you would like to be turned back?" Dimitri questions and steps beside me.

"If you turn me back, I will tell you anything you want about Natasha." Ethan nods and turns his body away from Dimitri. He clearly is afraid of him.

"You know that we could just torture the information out of you." Ermis remarks. Ethan bares his teeth and hisses at him.

"And you know that the transformation is not always successful. You could die in the process." Tryfon adds.

"I think you will kill me anyway." Ethan laughs. "I take my changes."

"I think it´s a bad idea." Ermis tells us.

"I would give it a shot." Dimitri sighs without taking his eyes away from Ethan.

"I don't know… It's not like we can ask Lissa just to travel here and transform a random Strigoi back to a Moroi." I tell them.

"I could tell you all about the Strigoi organization too!" Ethan hurries to say when he notices that we might not take his bait.

"About what now?" I turn to ask him.

"I cannot tell you anything about the Ancients, but I could tell you about the others. If you turn me back and offer me protection against Strigois!" Ethan exclaims. He is desperate to save his own skin.

"I might know a guy in Russian…" Kerem tells us reluctantly. "But it will not be cheap."

"We have Adri´s college fund…" Dimitri turns to whisper to me.

"I don't want to use it." I tell him.

"I would use it if it means that we might have a change of getting Adri herself back…"Dimitri tries to persuade me. I look deep into his eyes and see the determination in there.

"Okay, let's do it." I whisper back. Dimitri still believes that Adriana is alive and I would never take that away from him at this point of our journey.

"It´s a long and hard trip to Russia and the Vipers Nest can´t help us there" Kerem reminds us.

"If you want Natasha, that is where we would go anyway…" Ethan tells us shyly. It's settled then. We are transporting a random Strigoi to Russia to be turned back into Moroi in order to find my husband crazy ex-girlfriend. Sounds about my life.

We took the whole gang to transport Ethan across the border first to Georgia and then to Russia. We didn't want to take any changes of Ethan double-crossing us and leading us to a trap or him escaping. We had a special cage made of silver at the back of a truck and we took turns driving and sleeping on the road. We didn't stop because according to Dimitri that would be stupid and dangerous. It took us a whole day to reach Volgograd and once we reached our destination, everyone took a sigh of relief. The trip went well and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

"This is it?" I questioned as Dafina backed the truck into an alley behind a nightclub. The music was so loud that you could hear lyrics all the way to the car. "A Spirit user likes to hang out here?"

"He might not be a most decent Morois of all." Kerem admits. "But seeing that Zmey is your father, I didn't think that would be a problem."

"We´ll see." I just tell and follow Kerem, Dimitri, and Tryfon inside while other stayed behind to guard Ethan. The nightclub is full of young Morois dancing and their guardians standing on the side ready for battle. Now after spending so much time in Vipers Nest, this setup and role dividing seems so old-fashioned and backward. The guardian seems so stoic and bored out of their minds. You can practically see the contempt in their eyes as their young masters and mistresses drink themselves under the table and try to pick us the few blood whores that had found their way in.

I follow our gang to the bar and listen as Dimitri asks for the owner in Russian. They change afew heated words before one of the waitresses leads us upstairs and to the restricted area. She quietly knocks on big red double doors at the end of the corridor and waits for permission before opening them for us. The room inside surprises me. As the waitress closes the doors after us the room feels in silence. Not a single beat of the music is heard. The pool at the end of the room illuminated the space and patterns of water reflects around the room from mirrors on the ceiling. Before the pool is a single majestic chair where a Moroi sits sipping whiskey from his crystal glass and wrapped in white fur. He continues ignoring us as we walk closer and stop by the sofa collection facing the chair.

"Good to see you again, Volkov." Kerem greets him Moroi finally lifts his head and laughs.

"Kerem! You look old!" He makes fun of Kerem but Kerem doesn't seem to take it too hard. Kerem just laughs and shakes his hand.

"Sit down, please!" Volkov asks us by the wave of his hand. "What brings you and your group to Volgograd?"

"A business proposition." Dimitri makes himself known.

"Ah, of course." Volkov smiles smugly. "I have heard of your little expedition, Belikov."

"Have you?" Dimitri says stoically.

"Yes, I have. I have heard great stories about the Bear of Belikov and his wife searching the underworld for their daughter and uniting their powers with Silver Vipers." He chuckles and lets his gaze take all of us in. I met his gaze without wavering. This seems to amuse him.

"Kerem here thinks you could help us." Dimitri agrees after a short pause.

" I would believe so." He tells us pretty arrogantly if you ask me and takes another sip from this fancy class. "After all, I am the top Spirit user in Russia."

"What is your price for one Strigoi turning?" I ask bluntly.

"I don't think you can afford me." He winks at me.

"Try me." I tell him right back. Dimitri takes hold of my hand to hold me back. Volkov takes a note of that and just chuckles.

"You would be mistaken if you think my prices would be lower because I am not a royal Moroi. At times like these, every Moroi has to make a market for himself." He tells us while rising from his chair and handing a bill to Dimitri. "And seeing this is an emergency situation, I tend to charge a little extra."

Dimitri looks at the price before ripping the paper. Volkov doesn't seem impressed and he leans back in his chair to indicate his dislike. "I take that as a no."

"That is a no. You are just insulting us." Dimitri tells him and rises.

"How about we sweeten the deal?" Kerem hurries before Dimitri can leave.

"Like what?" Volkov asks curiously.

"Drop the price and we can make some kind of deal about follow-ups." Kerem suggests. "After all, we have still a lot of Strigois to take care of and Volgograd isn't that long way from our base."

Volkov takes his time thinking about Kerem proposition. It takes him good five minutes before he smiles and writes down a new price. He hands the paper to Dimitri who nods after checking the price.

"And if you should ever find yourself in money troubles, I have a way for you to earn your money back." Volkov chuckles at Dimitri.

"Thank you but we will be returning to the Queen's side when this is over." I say. I don't like his smug look or anything about him in fact. Volkov seems disappointed about my choice but accepts it with a deep breath.

"Alright then. Be back with the Strigoi and the money tomorrow night. I shall be ready by then." He nods and moves to refill his class. We take that as our sign to leave so we head back to the truck to wait until tomorrow.


	32. Chapter 32: The light and a bullet

RPOV

We did head back to that questionable nightclub the next night. Dimitri was able to withdraw all of our savings and I was currently carrying them in two bags towards the entrance of the nightclub. Dimitri and Kerem were guarding and shielding Ethan from curious glances. We had the whole entourage setup going on and we were protecting Ethan like some movie star. Both from himself and possible from other Strigois. We only had one attack during the day so we were still on high alert.

The nightclub is empty for our special session so we are directed to Volkov´s office straight away. As usually, some waitress opens his doors for us after knocking. Volkov is already by the pool and caressing the clear water. He turns to greet us with a smile. He is bare-chested but still wearing that ridiculous fur. If I didn't know any better, I would say that it was from a polar bear.

"Did you bring the money?" He asks without stepping out of the water. I walk forward and set the bags on the sofas as an answer. He just smiles and waves Ethan closer. Dimitri and Kerem escort him by arm towards the pool.

"The handcuffs won't be necessary." Valkov remarks. Dimitri hesitates for a minute but opens the silver handcuffs that we deemed necessary during the night. Ethan seems apprehensive about Volkov but joins him in the pool.

They both stand at the shallow end of the pool and the water reaches their tights. Two waitresses step forward with a tray. One holds numerous candles and incense that she starts to place around the pool. One stays by Volkov´s side and holds a silver stake for him. It takes a moment to place all the candles on the floor and Ethan seems agitated by the wait. He looks at me pleadingly but I just shake my head as to message him to hold still.

Finally, after all the preparations Volkov places his hand on Ethan's shoulder and starts to push him backward. Ethan walks slowly deeper as the waitress follows them into the water. Volkov starts to chant some kind of spell in Russia as he makes Ethan settle on his back. Ethan seems really uncomfortable floating there on his back and a Moroi standing by him chanting nonsense. I would. He keeps watching the mirror on the sealing and looking at each of us. Maybe he is waiting for us to stop this scheme and just kill him.

Volkov slowly takes the stake and the waitress hurries out of the pool. Seems like she is even less keen on spending time in a pool with a Strigoi than Ethan is about Volkov now holding a stake. Volkov raises the stake over his head with his both hands, keeps on chanting and watches in awe as the stake starts to shine. The light is so bright that Ethan hisses and closes his eyes.

"I changed my mind!" Ethan continues and starts to get up. Volkov doesn't let him but pushes him back down. Ethan panics and starts to fight Volkov. Water is splashing everywhere and I share a look with others. We are all wondering should we intervene. Volkov doesn´t stop his chanting but holds Ethan down and even underwater. Of course, that doesn't affect Strigois like it would us but it only makes Ethan angrier. I can see some blood mixing in the water as Ethan tries to claw his way to freedom.

Dimitri and Kerem are almost at the pool when Volkov drives his stake down and the room is flooded with white light. The impacts knock all of us down and it takes a moment for me to get back on my feet. We hurry to the pool where Volkov is staring blankly at the body at the bottom of the pool.

"You killed him?!" I scream.

"It is a part of the ritual. He must be strong enough to find his way back." Volkov tells us without a worry in the world. We all keep staring at the body as the waves slowly die down. We lean closer to see what is happening. And dear God, we all jump back with our hearts in our throats. Ethan suddenly jumps up and starts to gasps for air. Volkov gives him the way as he scoops his way towards us and the steps leading off the pool. He pulls himself on dry land and rolls on the ground trying to breathe. Dimitri quickly helps him up and turns him to properly look at us.

Ethan´s eyes are bloodshot from the water but blue again. I am surprised Volkov´s ritual actually worked. I genuinely thought it was just a show. Ethan takes one look at Dimitri and starts to cry his eyes out. I just roll mine but Dimitri understands his feelings. Awkwardly Dimitri gives him a manly hug and comforts him in Russia.

I planned to give them few minutes before starting my questioning but Ethan starts to bawl again just as Dimitri had calmed him down. "I need to see the sun!"

"For crying aloud!" I just yell. We are wasting time. That or he is stalling us. And there are no windows in the room, probably for safety reasons.

"We will take you out but it's night time right now. The sun is already down." Dimitri tries to reason with him.

"No! I will tell you nothing until I can see that it worked!" Ethan starts to blackmail us.

"Here." I run out of the patience and hand him a stake. It takes a few seconds for him to understand that he is holding a silver stake in his palms. He starts to laugh uncontrollably out of joy and happiness. I take the stake back before he stabs himself in the eye with all the laughing.

"Please remove him." Volkov asks counting his money with a towel around his neck. I guess he had grown bored of us as soon as he got the money. Kerem and Dimitri help Ethan up and he looks like Bambi on ice with his lost strength. He keeps tripping and wavering around. I guess Morois are that much weaker than Strigois or even Dhampirs.

I join them on our way down from Volkov´s office. "So Natasha Ozera?" I ask as I keep watching our surroundings.

"Yes, Natasha.." Ethan starts but he has to stop to look at the stairs. "It has been a while since I last saw her. Almost a year ago. There was a cabin near Saint Petersburg where we visited Natasha two times." That makes my heart sink. A year is a long time.

"Did she have a baby with her?" I still have to ask.

"At the first time yes. Lev was trying to persuade her to leave Russia but she said she has to wait for someone." Ethan tells us and I can see the sweat glistening on his forehead. We make it downstairs and I check the empty nightclub before we head to the back door and to our waiting car.

"And?" I demand more.

"The second time we visited her, the baby was gone. Lev got really angry and almost broke her skull. Lev said that Natasha had now become unstable and unfavorable and forbid anyone to be in contact with her or to help her." Ethan tells taking a moment to collect himself by leaning against the bar.

"Did Lev find out where Natasha had left the baby?" I ask fighting back the tears.

"Natasha wouldn't tell him." Ethan sighs and waits as Dimitri opens the exit door and checks that the coast is clear. "But I have heard rumors about the organization being interested in Dhampir babies."

"What do you mean?" I ask as confused and horrified at the same time. I keep the door for him as we finally leave the nightclub and it's strange atmosphere behind. But before Ethan can answer me we hear the tell-tale sign of gunshots. I automatically duck down and start to pull Ethan back inside with me. Ethan cries out as he gets shot in the leg.

"Pull back!" Dimitri yells but too late. Kerem takes a direct shot to the head and falls to the ground. Dimitri is lucky enough to dodge and he follows us in. We barricade the door and turn to look at Ethan.

"I don't want to die." He cries as he staggers around the bar area smearing the floor with his blood. Dimitri hoists him up on the bar table and I rip his pant leg off. The bullet stuck to his tibia and the bleeding hasn't stopped. I use the fabric of his pants as a tourniquet to stop it. Dimitri hurries to fight the first Strigoi that had burst through the door and couple of the nightclubs own Dhampir guard join him.

"Is Natasha still at the cabin?" I ask and a try to tighten the tourniquet. Ethan cries out and tries to breathe through the shock and pain.

"Yes." Ethan cries. "She is still waiting."

By the nick of time, I raise my head to see a Strigoi attacking at me. I turn around to stake him quickly but as I turn back towards Ethan an another Strigoi has come up behind the bar and drags him over by the collar of his shirt.

"No!" I yell and jump over the bar after them. But even I know that I am not fast enough. Ethan still half on the bar counter the Strigoi sinks its teeth onto Ethan's neck and starts to drink. I run and collide with them knocking both of them down. I stake the grinning Strigoi pretty easily which seems odd.

I quickly turn back towards Ethan. He sits up gasping for air. We both sigh with relief as he seems to be okay. I help him up to his feet and make sure he minds his leg. I turn to assess the situation but Ethan grunts something from behind me and grabs a hold of my arm.

"I don't feel so good…" He tells me. He looks little paler than a moment ago and doubles over holding his lungs.

"What's wrong?" I ask and make him stand up straight. He starts to hyperventilate and holds his heart. I try to pry his hands off but he starts to claw his heart and neck. I watch horrified as his veins beneath the skins turn blue and he starts to scream. He falls to the ground and starts to trash around holding his neck. I kneel down and try to help him but he keeps trashing too much.

"Ethan?" I yell and try to hold him still. He starts to cough blood all over the place and turns around on his knees to vomit more blood. I jump back as I see that the blood simmers and bubbles. "What is this?"

Dimitri hurries to my side and yanks me back from the blood and Ethan. Ethan keeps screaming as much as he can from the blood that is oozing out of his mouth, nose, and ears. "The vaccine…" Dimitri whispers horrified himself.

"This is what that nex vaccine does?!" I scream as Ethan´s body falls to the ground. "Where would he even get the vaccine into his system?! He was turned back a moment ago!"

"The bullet…" Dimitri whispers to me suddenly very serious. And I understand why. He both turn to keep our eyes on the rest of the people in the nightclub. There is no was Strigois would have done this alone…

"We need to hurry the hell out of here." I whisper back.

"And to the plane to Saint Petersburg." Dimitri finishes and we blaze out of there


	33. Chapter 33: Snow on the grave

DPOV

We were both on the edge as we hurried to the airport and on a plane. We didn't even bother to return to the base to collect our belongings. We had our passports and weapons with us and that was all we needed. Rose didn't relax until the plane was on the air but I still could feel the worry radiating off of her. We didn't have that much time on the plane so we used it to inform Christian about our worries. First, he had been shocked about the possibility of a mole but solemnly promised to look into it. Vasilisa had been more distressed about the events. She had screamed at Rose for using another Spirit user and took it as an insult. I was really proud of Rose as she calmly explained to her that Valkov had been nothing but a showman with a bit of luck. Vasilisa finally calmed down as Rose promised from now on to us her in every dangerous and ridiculous transformation that we would need.

We said our farewells as the plane started to land. We quickly exited the plane and vanished into the sea of people. Christian had informed us about his branch in Saint Petersburg but we all agreed that it would be wiser if we went solo from now on. We kept to ourselves and off the grid as we searched every possible place in and around Saint Petersburg. The idea had been that Tasha must have picked a place that meant something to her and me, but there weren't many paces at this part of Russia that we would have visited. We searched every tourist location, hotel, cabin, and hut around the city and came up empty-handed.

After a month we had to contact the branch of Saint Petersburg. They were not happy to hear that we had been roaming their streets for over a month without checking in with them. But after a few heated words and call to Christian, they agreed to give us information and supplies. But even they didn't have any official information about Tasha. She had truly vanished into thin air. But they had remarked weird hunting accidents south of the city.

And that's where we are heading now. It is slowly snowing as we ride our rented motor sled along a back road towards a deserted cabin. The silence in the woods is eerie but surprisingly calming as it prepares us for the worst. Rose is sitting behind me so I feel as she slowly fills her lungs and exhales. This is what we have been waiting for almost three years but neither of us is ready to face the music quite yet. There is a high possibility that we will find Adriana´s body today. Of course, I still hope that Tasha had maintained that drop of humanity and had kept our baby girl alive. But Rose has already given up hope. She just wants to find the body and bury it with the respect that Adriana deserves.

We turn to a smaller road and slide to stop as a cabin comes to our view. Rose huffs as we take a look at the architecture of the cabin. Tasha had obviously demolished the old cabin and built a new one. Only this cabin is an exact replica of the cabin at the court. The sight does not lift my mood. We both stay on the sled as we take a look around the woods. The snow on the ground seems untouched. It almost looks like Tasha herself had not left the cabin in a long time. But there is a smoke coming from the chimney so someone must be home.

I feel Rose´s hands tighten around my midsection as she turns to look at the right. I follow her gaze and freeze. There is a small cemetery at the edge of the clearing where the cabin has been built. There we can see three orthodox crosses. The snow around the graves is also untouched like the rest of the milieu but that doesn't ease our minds. I take a closer look at the crosses. They seem to be made of older wood but they could be recycled. I dismount the sled and hand Rose my helmet. We had agreed that it is best if I go in the cabin first on my own and try to persuade Tasha to hand Adriana over. If she sees Rose, she might flip and kill Adriana by accident. But seeing the craves, my hopes demeanor even further.

Rose slowly takes her helmet off and gives me a stern look. Come what may, we will have a closer today. I give her a nod, take my stake out and ready, and head towards the cabin. The door is unlocked as I push the door open. My eyes go straight to Tasha sitting at the corner of the room by the fire.

"You came after all.." She whispers. Oh, Tasha. She had become nothing but a shadow of herself. True, I can see the red eyes but she looks deflated and sick. She truly had not left the cabin for a long time and the hunger for blood had driven her mad a long time ago. The room is a mess. The furniture is broken and the pieces tossed all over the place. I freeze again as I notice a crib. It seems to be the only thing left untouched it the room. I slowly approach it while still keep an eye on Tasha. I remember all those horror movies where the couple finds a crib and a corpse of a baby in a haunted house and pray to God that I don't find Adriana in it. I slowly lean down to look at the empty crib and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Where is she?" I ask and turn slowly look at Tasha. She hadn't moved from her spot, only chuckles a little.

"Answer me truthfully Dimka. Did you come here for me or the baby?" She asks smiling slightly. Even she knows the answer before I give her one.

"I don't have the patience for this Tasha. Where is she?!" I yell at her.

"I killed her a long time ago!" Tasha screams back laughing. But she doesn't laugh for long as she sees the horror and despair on my face. "Oh, Dimka. She just wouldn't stop screaming. She was too much like Rose. And I just shook her a little bit too hard to make her shut up. I really didn't mean to…" She apologizes with a sad smile on her face. She doesn't even understand that she had done. She isn't really even sorry for her actions, for killing my daughter.

That makes me finally snap. Her indifference to human life, for life of my baby girl, makes me finally attack her. I fantasize about all the pain I can inflict on her. I fantasize about ripping her slowly apart and torturing her for three years that she had kept as in the dark. I will kill her slowly and painfully and make every Strigoi in the world to acknowledge to never mess with my family ever again!

Tasha just sits there indifferent waiting for her death as I attack. I rip her up from that ridiculous chair and throw her against the wall. The last of the pictures on the wall fall and break causing the glass to shatter everywhere. I get a better grip on my stake and show it towards her heart. Some instincts kick in and she starts to fight back. She manages to kick me across the room but I don't give her room to escape. We circle the room before she attacks. I can see her lips pull back to reveal her teeth as she tries to bite me. I take it that she doesn't know about the vaccine and that is fine with me. If she thinks Strigoi-me would stay with her, she is mistaken.

I quickly dodge her teeth and sent her flying. Our fight breaks what is left of the room and the noise must have worried Rose. "Comrade?!" She yells trying to open the door but too much of the debris had blocked the door.

"Do not enter!" I tell her as I kick Tasha off of me. Tasha hits the door hard pushing it back shot. She turns to growl at Rose but before she can open the door for Rose, I jump back on my feet and hit her hard with my stake. It takes her by surprise. I know I missed her heart but now she is immobilized against the door.

"Dimka…?" She asks looking shocked. She tries to pull the stake out but can't get a hold of the silver.

"You should not have killed her." I tell her without mercy. She nods shaking and lowers her gaze at the stake.

"Why Tasha?!" I exclaim. "She was just an innocent baby!"

"I didn't…" She whispers still trying to pull the stake out. Her blood is oozing out of the wound and making the stake even more slippery.

"What did you say…?" I ask stepping closer. I must have heard her wrong.

"I didn't kill Adriana!" She yells and attacks me again. She rips herself off the door by letting the stake remain and go through her. I hit her with all my mighty making her bang against the door again. The stake digs into her back making her cry out as I grab a piece of wood from the debris and stake her other shoulder to the door. She screams in agony but stops fighting me.

"She is alive?" I ask voice barely a whisper but she hears me alright.

"I couldn´t kill her." Tasha rants and laughs nervously. "She looked too much like you! I wanted to kill her but I couldn´t!"

"Where is she now, Tasha? WHERE!" I yell and grab a hold of her hair and make her look at me. "Where is my daughter?!"

"I left her at an orphanage over a year ago." She hisses. "At Saint Petersburg."

That is all I need to know as I pick up another wooden stake and show it through her heart. She smiles at me before I release her hair and let her head fall. I stand there gathering my breath before Rose slowly opens the door Tasha still hanging from it. She looks at Tahsa for a second before looking at me.

"Let´s burn the fucker down." And I couldn't agree with her more. I stride back into the cabin and close the outlet of the chimney. The room starts slowly fill with smoke as I refill the woods and Rose uses the fire from the fireplace to light up the remains of the bed and table. We close the door after us and return to the motor sled. I jump on it and Rose moves back to sit behind me. We stay there without words as we watch the cabin to burn down before we head back towards Saint Petersburg.


	34. Chapter 34: The organization

RPOV

I did not think we would find the orphanage that easily. We had spent months searching after Lev, Tasha and the cottage, but the orphanage stood in the middle of Saint Petersburg. I was fairly sure that we would find a burndown building and would have to start our search all over again. So understandably I was a little skeptic as we pulled in front of the orphanage.

"What if it's a trap?" I voice my opinion as I unbuckled myself and step out of the car.

"Could be." Dimitri accepts but we both know that we would go in there no matter what.

We walk briskly to the door and rang the doorbell. For a moment, we don't hear anything but then steps advance the door. We both move our hand to our stakes as the door slowly opens to reveal an older lady. The old human looks harmless enough and Dimitri exchanges a few words with her in Russia. The lady opens the door for us and ushers us in.

"I am pleased to hear that you have heard wonderful things about our orphanage." The lady turns to speak to me in English. I just share a smile with her but don´t elaborate.

The lady raises her eyebrows at me and turns back to Dimitri. "So you are here to adopt a child?"

"Yes." Dimitri nods as we follow the human towards an office. I get a glimpse of the house as we walk by some rooms. Nothing seems out of place and the orphanage seems to be recently renovated.

"What happened there?" I can't help but ask. Right next to the office is a room blocked by a sheet of plastic. "Remodelling?"

"Yes, we had a fire a few years ago and we are still doing repair work." The lady tells us and holds the door of the office for us.

"A fire?" Dimitri asks casually but I can see the concern in his stride and jawline.

"It is a long story." The lady sigh as she sits down behind her desk. I take it that she, Miss Orlova, runs the orphanage.

"Maybe we should go elsewhere…" I turn to tell Dimitri as if we might be suspicious of the fire. Which we are, but we are really not going anywhere. Though Miss Orlova takes the bait.

"No need!" She hurries to say before Dimitri can answer me. "The fire was an unfortunate accident! It happened because the bad choices the former head of the orphanage made and those choices had been dealt with." She tries to reassure me.

"What kind of mistakes?" I push for more. Miss Orlova hesitates and glances at something behind us. I slowly turn to see that there is an old orthodox cross at top of the door. I turn back to see her examining us.

"She… She made a deal with a devil.." She slowly tells us like she might even herself question her words.

"A devil?" Dimitri asks and leans forward.

"I don't remember much of that night of the fire. But those men with white skin and red eyes came here once a week long before the fire. I think they were demons. The headmistress had made some kind of deal with them. They would observe the children throughout the evening and when the children went to bed, they retired to this room. And before the sun came up, they left. Sometimes they would adopt a child but usually, they left quietly." She seems to be far away as she recalls the event of that night. We exchanged glances but decided not to interrupt her.

"But then something changes... " She sighs. "Usually they left quite unhappy like they haven't found what they were looking for. But a night before the fire, they seemed really pleased. I heard them talking on the phone and telling their boss in English that they found two."

"Two of what?" I whisper.

"Children." She sighs again and closes her eyes looking regretful. "Adriana and Ksenia."

That makes both of us rigid. Dimitri even jumps up from the chair and I think I stopped breathing. Miss Orlova regards us resentful. "Those girls were so lovely. Ksenia was a bundle of joy and we had already found a family for Adriana."

"What happened to them?" I ask out of breath and voice strained. Dimitri slowly sits back down and takes my hand.

"Of course we told the demons no. Like I said, Adriana already had a family coming to take her home and Ksenia was too little for their sick plans. The demons left in a hurry. They didn't return the next night but as the sun rose, the fire broke out." She glances at the cross again. "Six children and the former headmistress were killed that night. We never found Adriana or Ksenia…"

"The demons took them?" I ask dumbfounded.

"I think so but the police would not do anything about it. They didn't believe in demons." She challenges us with her eyes. Dimitri leans back and closes his eyes in despair. I just bury my face in my hands and scream out in frustration.

We had hit the dead end once again. We had found the place that Adriana had been all this time only to learn that now she was in the hands of Strigois. This must be what Ethan was trying to tell us. The Organisation of Strigois going after Dhampir babies. Our only consolation was that if they went through all of this troubles to find Dhampir babies they would be as eager to keep them alive. And after the birth of Lissa´s second baby and the Christmas party, we head right back to Russia and turned every fucking stone to find Lev and other Ancients to kill them all. Now we knew that Adriana was alive and we had the new motivation to get her home.

But it took us years to find any of the Ancients. By then Adriana was around nine years old. Every single year away from our loved once and Adriana was like the worst torture I ever went through and I had experience in that department. But in the end, it was worth it. In the end, we did find her.

* * *

I know this left some questions unanswered but that is all part of my plan! This was never a short story and the next part I want to present to you is from Adriana´s point of view. I have big plans for the Organisation and the position of Dhampirs in my new world. So a sequel is coming up, you just hang on. Big thanks to all of you who took their time to give some feedback. Those fun and supportive comments are what made me carry this story so far.


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